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August 31, 2006

UK: 80% Think Muslim Council Fails In Tackling Extremism

News from the Daily Mail and This is London describes the results of a poll made by PR Week magazine, an international public relations news organisation. The original poll results require paid subscription to be viewed, however.

The most important part of the survey was its finding that 78% of those polled thought that the Muslim Council for Britain has not done nearly enough to combat anti-Western extremism.

Readers of anti-Islamist blogs already know that the MCB, far from countering extremism, positively supports it. The Muslim Council does not exist to make Muslims more amenable to Britain, but to make Britain more accommodating to Muslims, extremist Muslims included. Its last general secretary, Iqbal Sacranie, had tried in 1996 to invite Osama bin Laden to an Islamic "rally" in London and his sidekick, press spokesman Inayat Bunglawala, similarly praised Osama bin Laden as a "freedom fighter". Sacranie attended a memorial service for the wheelchair-bound Islamist, Sheikh Yassin, founder of terror organisation Hamas, which has killed countless Israeli civilians. Yet Sacranie calls the dead cleric a "freedom fighter" and mendaciously compared him to Gandhi and Nelson Mandela.

Bunglawala, who like Sacranie is a dyed-in-the wool anti-semite, famously wrote in January 1993 that the Egyptian Islamist Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman was "courageous". A month later, the blind cleric ordered a truck laden with explosives to be detonated beneath the World Trade Center, killing six people. Bunglawala could be regarded as stupid for making such comments, or evil. It is more likely that he is both.

The current feuhrer at the MCB is Bangladeshi-born Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, who is also chairman of the East London Mosque, which was built with money from Saudi Arabia. Proof of Bari's contempt for "moderation" came when he invited Delwar Hossain Sayeedi to the East London Mosque in July. Sayeedi belongs to the Jamaat-e-Islami party, whose youth wing murders and threatens professors who promote secularism. Sayeedi has also said that Britain and the US "deserve all that is coming to them" for overthrowing the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Dr Bari also supports the notion of arranged marriages, and the Muslim Council of Britain recently persuaded the British government to abandon its plans to outlaw forced marriage, even though every year, 250 young girls are subjected to this abuse of their basic human rights.

And far from encouraging measures to defuse extremism, such as Britain's Terrorism Act 2006, the MCB actively campaigned to sabotage it. Abdurahman Jafar, vice chairman of the legal affairs committee of the MCB had in November tried to emasculate the bill by trying to have its clause against "glorification of terrorism" removed.

And when it was revealed that one of the 400 groups for which the MCB acted as an "umbrella organisation" was extremist, the MCB merely stated that it did not make checks on the attitudes of those it claimed to represent. Birmingham-based Ahl-e-Hadith with 41 branches across Britain carried on its website the statement that its followers should "be different from Jews and Christians" whose "ways are based on sick or deviant views".

And one of the Muslim Council of Britain's main tools is blackmail. On August 12, barely two days after details emerged of a massive plot to bomb at least nine planes bound to the US, devised by "British" Muslims, the Muslim Council for Britain sought with others to blackmail the government. A letter, printed in most newspapers, called for Britain to alter its Foreign Policy to satisfy British Muslims (a piddling 3% of the national demographic), as this would end extremism.

Anyone who reads blogs such as ours already knows that the Muslim Council for Britain is populated by extremists and supporters of terror, whose manipulations are only matched by their dishonesty.

What is so refreshing is that after more than a year of holding very public press conferences, and being portrayed since 7/7 as the faces of "moderate" Islam, if ever such a thing existed, the poll from PR Week has shown that the British public is not fooled any more by the duplicity and ulterior motives of the MCB.

Among the over-55s, who have been around long enough to be able to recognise political and lying scoundrels, the figure for those who thought the MCB was not doing enough to counter anti-Western extremism rose to 90%.

And despite the MCB's ubiquitous presence on media outlets whenever there is a Muslim outrage, the respondents found that they were undecided if the MCB was "tolerant of Western practices", split 50-50 on the matter.

What is surprising is that 40% thought that the MCB was not doing enough to uphold the Muslim faith.

These people are probably still living under the influence of media dhimmitude, and do not recognise that Mohammed, the founder of Islam, delighted in murder, war and theft (as well as paedophilia), which somehow disqualifies Islam as a real "faith". They also fail to recognise that the MCB is a purely political organisation, an unelected body abusing British democracy by unduly influencing the policies of an elected government.

Founded in 1997, the MCB's stated aim is to "promote cooperation, concensus and unity on Muslim affairs in the UK."

What its mission statement fails to mention is that Muslims are not expected to cooperate, but the British public are the ones who are expected, like those interrogated by Nazis, to do the "cooperating".

A spokesman for the MCB expressed disappointment about the poll, and made noises such as: "I don't think many people actually know what the MCB does. I'm not sure, for example, how many realise we are working with police to produce half a million pocket guides to go out to young Muslims to promote a new anti-terror hotline number. And we have repeatedly said that Muslims have a duty to inform police if know anything about a terrorist plot - not just a legal duty, but also an Islamic obligation."

"At the same time, we are not a law enforcement body. It's undoubtedly true that in recent years some Muslims have become so radicalised that they are prepared to contemplate murdering fellow citizens. The question we need to answer is what has contributed to that phenomenon. After all, we never saw this happening in the 1970s, 80s and 90s when Muslims were here in large numbers. Is it imams, is it preachers on back streets, is it the Internet, is it Government policy? We called for a public inquiry in the wake of the July 7 bombings to examine these questions but the Government has not agreed to hold one."

The spokesman said the MCB received no regular funding from the government, but failed to mention that it has received government funding of at least £500,000 ($951,714) from the Home Office. Last February it was awarded £150,000 ($285,555) from the Home Office's "cohesion and faiths unit" for the financial year that ended in March 2006.

The MCB has been registered as a UK charity, under the name "The Muslim Council of Britain Charitable Foundation" (number 1084651) since 23 January 2001. It has not completed its financial returns to the Charity Commission since it became registered as a charity five yeas ago, and its last statement of expenditure was made more than three years ago.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 9:18 PM | Comments (1)

Miss World: The Trouble With Muslims And Beauty Queens

The annual Miss World event has always been a charade, with lisping crowned beauties telling announcers that they would wish to use their title to improve the world and put an end to global poverty, before rushing off to advertise some soap product.

There were interesting moments, such as the UK Grand Finale in 1970 when frumpy feminists threw bags of flour at compere Bob Hope and called him a "sexist prick" and other sobriquets, but it was only since the Millennium that the annual pageant became really interesting. For that we have to thank our peace-loving Muslim friends.

Perhaps it was always inevitable that Miss World and Muslims were going to clash. The Miss World pageant had been initiated in 1951 by entrepreneur Eric Morley, chairman of the company Mecca, which owned ballrooms and bingo establishments throughout Britain. Muslims had already tried (and failed) to legally stop him using the name of his company.

In November 2002, fanatical Muslims in Nigeria used the event as an excuse to do a rerun of the rioting of 2000 where the introduction of sharia law had led to the deaths of thousands in Kaduna State in an orgy of sectarian bloodletting. In 2002, the Miss World pageant was due to have started in Nigeria in November, but as this coincided with Ramadan, the event was officially moved to the following month.

When journalist Isioma Daniel published an article in the newspaper This Day on Saturday November 16, all hell broke loose. The article suggested that the sexually incontinent "prophet" of Islam would have loved such a contest. She wrote: "What would Muhammed think? In all honesty, he would probably have chosen a wife from among them."

As a result, on November 20 in Kaduna town, the regional offices of This Day were smashed up, and on the following day Muslims decided to indulge in their favourite hobby, slaughtering Christians and committing mayhem.

Many Christians were hacked to death by machete in their own homes, leading to recriminations the following day. The bloodshed had been incited by the local mosques. The violence spread to Abuja, the federal capital, and was initiated by Muslims at the Abuja mosque (above left). Three apologies by the Lagos-based paper This Day were ignored, as was a threat from the Nigerian government to punish those who had engaged in "irresponsible journalism". After three days of bloodshed and atavistic violence more than 250 were dead in Kaduna alone. Several churches had been totally destroyed in the town (pictured below right). The majority of the dead were non-Muslims, murdered by followers of the "religion of peace".

90 potential contestants for the Miss World pageant were already in Nigeria for the event when the rioting took place, but it was announced as the violence escalated that the event would be transferred to London. The usual procedure is for the contest to be held in the country where the previous winner hailed from, and in 2001, Nigerian Agbani Darego had been crowned Miss World.

Before the "offending" article had been written, there was already controversy about the Nigerian staging of the event. Contestants from Costa Rica, Denmark, Switzerland, South Africa and Panama had refused to take part, as the newly-implemented Sharia courts in Nigeria had sentenced unmarried women to be stoned to death for getting pregnant.

This year, the contest will be held in Warsaw, Poland, and already the controversial noises from Muslims have begun. We reported last year that four Muslim hopefuls from Britain were taking part in the national event to select a candidate for the Grand Finale.

And as has become a tradition, an old Muslm fart decided to condemn the event. In this case, the old fart was Hashim Sulaiman, of the Liverpool Islamic Institute, who had his anger (and maybe something else) pointed at Iraqi born Sarah Mendly, a 23-year old biochemistry graduate. He said: "There is no way a Muslim girl should be playing any part in this competition, because it is unlawful. The ladies in that contest are always very scantily dressed and the only part of the body that should be on display are the face, the hands and the feet."

""I would like this girl to withdraw from the contest immediately. I do not know what she was thinking in entering in the first place and I do not know what her parents were thinking when they allowed her to do so."

Though tipped to win, Miss Mendly was beaten by the equally stunning Hammasa Kohistani (pictured), who arrived in the UK from her native Uzbekistan when she was 9. She is intelligent, with good academic grades and is able to speak six languages, including Farsi, Russian and French. But being a beauty does not prevent her from making stupid comments.

Today, the BBC reports that the outgoing Miss England has launched a scathing attack on Blair. She has blamed the Prime Minister and his government for creating a "negative image" of Muslims since last years' Muslim terrorist attacks on 7 July, which killed 52 people travelling on London Transport.

She says: "Tony Blair addressed Muslims in particular, telling them that they need to sort out the problem within. That was a huge stereotype of the Islamic community. Even the more moderate Muslims have been stereotyped negatively and feel they have to take actions to prove themselves."

But so they should. Silence is acquiescence when members of one's faith commit terrorist attacks. And Muslims whose leaders sanction terrorism abroad have only themselves to blame for the near universal distrust which is shown to them at home. Miss England is living proof that no matter how academically intelligent a person is, there is always room to be a social idiot.

A spokesman for the Department of Communities and Local Government said: "There can never be an excuse for extremism and we totally reject any claim that we are not committed to working in partnership to tackle it."

And in the southern hemisphere, one old Muslim fart (pictured) has already started to condemn Muslims partaking in beauty contestants in Australia. The Australian Daily Telegraph reported in its print edition of August 29 that the salafist preacher Sheikh Mohammed Omran has been sounding off against a 16 year old girl. Ayten Ahmed, a Melbourne girl of Turkish origin, is condemned for deciding to take part in the Miss Teen Australia pageant.

Roger Coombs speaks of how the Sheikh, described as a "hairy oil painting" and as a "ratbag cleric", has said that for Ms Ahmed to partake in such a ceremony it was "a slur on Islam".

Coombs writes: "...back to the core of the issue, which is that, in Omran's radically Muslim world view, Islam is somehow offended by the idea of this woman in a beauty contest. Why, precisely? Which embodiment of Islam is offended and how? Does Allah care? If so, how do we know. Where is it written?"

The Melbourne-based Sheikh, who notoriously called Osama bin Laden "a good man" and said this year that 9/11 was the work of the US government, is criticised by Australia's Muslim contestant in the Miss World Contest, according to the Sydney Daily Telegraph.

Responding to the mad Mullah's comment that "The teachings of the Prophet and the Holy Koran do not encourage a girl to go out and uncover her modesty in public," 20-year old university student Sabrina Houssami from Sydney (pictured) has stood her ground, saying: "I try to treat people well and I don't see why wearing a swimsuit in a contest which raises so much money for charity would be against the rules."

So far, she has raised $1.2 million for charity, and she says this is proof enough that she is upholding one of the "five pillars of Islam".

And last month, the fanatical and violent members of the Front Pembela Islam (Islamic Defenders Front) in Indonesia tried to have their Miss Indonesia, Nadine Chandrawinata, prosecuted for indecency, after she wore a bikini.

The Grand Finale of the 56th contest is being held on September 30.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 6:56 PM | Comments (1)

Turkey: Classic Western Books Get Muslim Makeover

A story from today's Telegraph reports that classical western books, such as Pinnochio by Carlo Collodi, Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter and many others, have been Islamified by Muslim publishers in Turkey.

Even the works of Victor Hugo, La Fontaine, Oscar Wilde, Chekhov and Alexander Dumas have not escaped the forced conversion of their characters. Even the little Swiss girl Heidi, in Johanna Spyri's eponymous children's classic, is told by Ms. Sesasman that praying to Allah will make her relax.

Polyanna is not only aware of the Koran, but now says she believes it has predicted the end of the world, Tom Sawyer learns his Islamic prayers and even gets a reward for learning his Arabic words. In The Three Musketeers, an old woman says to D'Artagnan of his friend Aramis: "He is surrounded by men of religion. He converted to Islam after his illness".

These books are among mutilated versions of 100 classic stories now officially placed on the school curriculum in Turkey as part of its "Essential Reading List".

The Turkish Daily News states that the books have now created a furor that has even reached parliament.

The bastardized versions of these classic books bear the logo of Turkey's Ministry of Education, but are apparently produced by Islamist publishers exploiting the fact that the ministry has recommended the original books as reading material.

The scandal was first exposed by the daily newspaper Radical, and the Education Minister Hüsseyin Çelik has condemned the Islamic publishers for their interferences.

As well as including references to Islam in stories where Islam was never thitherto mentioned, some publishing houses have gone a step further, and have decided to include obscenities to spice up the "approved" texts.

One book of riddles, which was on the Essential Reading List, appears in one version carrying the Ministry of Education logo, and is certainly not something the Ministry approves of - has puzzles using "obscene terminology", and vulgar language describing male reproductive organs.

Çelik said recently in the eastern city of Van that he will sue publishers of books containing obscenities if they carry the Ministry of Education logo.

The Islamicized versions of western classics are mostly produced by the lkbiz Publishing House, and questions were raised in the Turkish parliament on Friday. Engin Altay, deputy of the secularist opposition party (Republican People's Party or CHP) tabled a question to Education Minister Hüsseyin Çelik, asking if the books will be removed from shelves. As well as Western classics, Altay noted that the 100 books chosen for the list had a strong emphasis towards Islam. He said that the Ministry had connived in the scandal, by recommending books and then not checking the published editions.

Emin Ekinci from the teachers' union Egitim-Sen, who is principal of the Büyük Halkali primary school has noted that the Education Ministry's Training and Education Agency had not examined the "recommended" books, and said that parents should look for this agency's logo on the published books rather than the ministry's logo.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of the Islamist Justice & Development Party (AKP), who currently has his aim set at the Turkish presidency, has now ordered Çelik to take legal action against the publishing houses who have "tampered" with the recommended texts.

There may be further reason for Erdogan to be annoyed - according to the Telegraph, some adulterated books on the reading list include rude rhymes which mock the president and the prime minister.

But before the publishing houses are punished and the books are withdrawn from sale, Turkish children can still enjoy the obscenities and also the Islamist messages, such as the ones contained in that renowned Muslim classic Pinocchio, where the puppet says to his "father" Geppetto: "Give me some bread, for Allah's sake."

Someone's nose should grow by at least few inches.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 2:44 PM | Comments (0)

India: Islamic Seminary Prohibits Life Insurance

An influential Sunni Muslim institution in India has declared life insurance "un-islamic" as it violates Islamic Law, The Houston Chronicle and MSNBC report.

Ulemas (Islamic Clerics) at the Darul Uloom seminary in Deoband reasoned that since insurance is "sort of gambling" and it also involves the payment of interest money, it surely is against the wishes of Allah. Riba, or "usury", is condemned by all major Islamic sects, although disagreements exist about what exactly constitutes Riba.

The ruling is the latest in a series of rulings which seem to be designed to further alienate Indian Muslims from secular India.

Muhammad ibn Abdullah, the self-proclaimed last and perfect prophet for humanity, prohibited Riba for his followers although he took loans to finance his warfare from Jews whom he later vilified, and eventually slaughtered. The prohibition of so-called usury remains a difficulty for the proper development of Islamic countries, as well as a constant difficulty for Muslims living in countries not ruled by Islam.

Posted by Ruy Diaz at 12:03 PM | Comments (0)

August 30, 2006

Indonesia: Muslim Threats Cause Tourists To Be Warned

News from the New Zealand Herald relates that earlier today, the director-general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), Paul O'Sullivan warned that Muslim groups in Indonesia were planning new atrocities against Western visitors.

O'Sullivan was addressing a conference on national security and business in Sydney, Australia, and said that more attacks against Australians were likely over the next few months.

He said: ""Further attacks against Australians and Australian interests in Indonesia are likely, as key Jemaah Islamiyah indentities, including Noordin Mohammed Top, remain at large."

Top was regarded as a financier and recruiter for Jemaah Islamiyah, who is said to have played a key part in the 2002 bombings on Bali, which killed 202 people, including 88 Australian tourists. His current whereabouts are unknown.

There has been a "stream of reporting" on the potential of such attacks, leading to Australia's Foreign Affairs Department to warn nationals against travel to Indonesia. The likelihood of such attacks is more probable between now and December. The Department warns citizens to exercise "extreme caution".

In New Zealand, the message to potential travellers to Indonesia was the same - stay away. Brad Tattersfield, New Zealand;s Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman said of the warnings against travel to Indonesia: "We've had that level of advice pretty much since the first Bali bombing. The reason we have maintained that is because we continue to receive advice from a range of sources that this level of advice is warranted."

An Islamist website has suggested that attacks may take place on Kuningan district in Jakarta, Indonesia's capital, as well as other targets in the city. These include sporting venues, shopping malls, hotels, and the Jakarta zoo.

There are also risks associated with visiting Western fast food venues, bars, cinemas, churches, and government buildings.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 11:31 PM | Comments (0)

Australia: Jihad Jack's Wife Denies Muslim Terror Group Links

We reported yesterday that "Jihad Jack" or Joseph Thomas (pictured right), was subjected to a control order, the first to be imposed under Australia's new anti-terrorism laws. The Australian Federal Police (AFP) had argued that Thomas was likely to be "attractive to aspirant extremists who will seek out his skills and experiences to guide them in achieving their potentially extremist objectives."

The AFP summary also claimed: "Mr Thomas's links with extremists such as Abu Bakar Bashir, some of which are through his wife, may expose and exploit Mr Thomas's vulnerabilities."

Though he had been acquitted on August 18 of receiving money from Al Qaeda because he had been "under duress" when he had been questioned in Pakistan in March, 2003, Thomas had nonetheless freely admitted on a Four Corners show for ABC that he had been to Afghanistan to join Al Qaeda, that he had met Osama bin Laden, and had been trained at the Al Qaeda-run Al Farooq terror training camp, where he had learned how to assemble explosive devices.

There were also fears that his Indonesian wife Maryati had connections with Abu Bakar Bashir, the spiritual head of the terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah.

Now, according to the Australian and the Melbourne Age, Jihad Jack's wife has been protesting that she has had no family connections with Jemaah Islamiyah, the Indonesian terror group which caused, amongst other atrocities, the October 2002 bombings on Bali, which killed 202 people, including 88 Australian tourists.

Maryati's parents, Zuhra and Mohammad Idris, have now stated that the stories of a family link to Abu Bakar Bashir, which are contradictory and have come from Thomas and his lawyer Rob Stary, have no basis in fact. One of the claims had been that Mrs Idris (pictured below left) had gone to school with a woman who had gone on to marry the Islamist preacher, who was jailed for giving his consent to the 2002 Bali bombings. Mrs Idris says that the person she went to school with who eventually married Bashir as his second wife was not a friend, but a "friend of a friend".

In 2004, during a bail hearing, Rob Stary had made the claim that Maryati Thomas was a friend of Bashir's wife. Jihad Jack, in his interview on "our Corners" had said: "My wife had gone to school with his wife. They went to school together, as far as I know."

Les Thomas, Jack's brother, said: "This whole notion of the marriage itself being a kind of dark terror plot - it's just unbelievable."

Jihad Jack's father-in-law said of him: "I went regularly with him to work at 4am at the fruit distribution business where he had a job, to help him out. As a former policeman, I know how to spot if something wrong is going on."

Thomas had Maryati had married in South Africa in 1998, but they had not seen each other until a bare two hours before the Muslim wedding took place. Until then, all their correspondence had been via email. Jihad Jack had employed a marriage broker to forge the tryst.

Maryati had visited Jihad Jack in Pakistan in late 2001, when he was still an Al Qaeda trainee, and subsequent to this, she herself had been monitored for a few months by Australian intelligence.

Maryati's sister "She doesn't like politics, doesn't like the headache of it. She always says, 'I study hard, but what I study is Islam'."

She had been a tomboy during her teenage years, and had worn cropped hair then, stated her parents. They showed a photograph to prove it. Maryati only started to wear the hijab or Muslim headscarf when she went to Monash University in Melbourne to study Information Technology.

The director of the International Crisis Group, Dr Sidney Jones, is an expert on Jemaah Islamiyah. She has affirmed that there is no evidence to confirm that Maryati Thomas is a senior figure in Jemaah Islamiyah (JI). She also states that nether Thomas' nor his wifes' name appeared during her extensive researches.

According to the Age, Jihad Jack also denies claims that he travelled overseas with another Muslim convert, called Jack Roche. This man was convicted in 2004 of trying to blow up the Israeli Embassy in Canberra. Like Thomas, Roche had been a Melbourne taxi driver.

Jihad Jack Thomas said he had met Abu Bakar Bashir and Jack Roche only once, in a hotel in Indonesia. He said: "Bashir came to the hotel.... with Jack Roche. As far as I knew he was coming to visit the people in the hotel who had been to the Haj. In half-an-hour I probably spoke half-a-dozen words to him."

In another story from the Australian, magistrate Gordon Mowbray has accused the government of turning Jihad Jack's control order proceedings into a "farce". Speaking at the Federal Magistrate's Court in Canberra, the capital, Mowbray said that the mentioning of Osama bin Laden's name in the AFP summary should not have been made.

The summary stated that Joseph Thomas should not contact Osama bin Laden.

Mowbray said: "In my view it makes the order look somewhat silly in putting the name on the list," he said. "... it makes it look almost a bit farcical, and this is a very serious proceeding."

And in separate news, the Islamist cleric Abu Bakar Bashir has added some fuel to the flames of the controversy over Bali 2002, by claiming that the terrorist atrocity was carried out by the United States government.

According to the Indonesian news agency Antara News, Bashir said to Australia's ABC TV that the CIA had detonated a "micro-nuclear" bomb in Bali in a move to discredit Islam.

Australia's Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, said: "It's a free country, and he can say what he likes, and of course some of the comments that he made yesterday were fairly preposterous. I don't think anyone would much believe anything he was saying."

If Bashir really believes this nonsense, maybe the Cipinang prison in East Jakarta, which he left on June 13 was the wrong sort of establishment for him to be imprisoned within

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 10:53 PM | Comments (0)

Indonesia: Trial Of Editor For Publishing Muslim Cartoons

According to Italian News Agency AKI and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the trial was due to have started today of a web editor, Teguh Santosa, for publishing some of the Mohammed cartoons which were originally commissioned by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.

Teguh was due to appear in South Jakarta District Court today, charged with "defamation against a religion". I have checked on Antara News and the Jakarta Post's English language pages, and can find no mention of the case.

The editor of Rakyat Merdeka Online was arrested on July 19, even though he had made a public apology for showing the pictures, which are considered offensive to Muslims. He had also removed the images from the news website. He is being charged with defamation of a religion under the Indonesian Criminal Code (KUHP). If found guilty, he could face five years' imprisonment.

Christopher Warren, the president of IFG stated: "This trial against Teguh is an affront to free speech. To face five years imprisonment, is not only excessive, it is also an attack on the very foundations of freedom of expression."

"This is another terrible violation of press freedom, which in a long line of defamation lawsuits against journalists and media organisations, including Tempo, Kompas, and Trust, seems to highlight a troublesome pattern in Indonesia."

"It is time for the Indonesian Government to recognise that jailing journalists for defamation is an ineffective and inappropriate penalty. Defamation should be dealt with through the civil Law of the Press 40/1999 in Indonesia."

IFJ represents 500,000 journalists in more than 115 countries. When we have more news on this trial, we will report it.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 9:56 PM | Comments (0)

Netherlands: Politician Facing Islamic Threats Gets No Campaign Security Help

Before Ayaan Hirsi Ali left Holland to work in America, she shared one thing in common with another member of the Dutch parliament, Geert Wilders. Both were recipients of open death threats from Muslims. When the film-maker Theo van Gogh was killed in a street by Islamist Mohamed Bouyeri on November 2, 2004, a note was pinned to his chest with a knife. This note threatened Hirsi Ali and Wilders with death.

At the end of March this year, there had been a total of 121 recorded death threats made against Wilders and Ali.

Wilders, like Hirsi Ali, had been forced to go into hiding since van Gogh's murder, and only emerges into the public eye when accompanied by bodyguards. Like Hirsi Ali, Wilders had been a member of parliament, representing the Liberal Party, or VVD. However, he resigned from the party in late 2004 because of his opposition to Turkey gaining accession to the European Union.

With elections soon coming up, Wilders has founded his own party, the Party for Freedom (pvdV). But he has had to cancel a recent campaign meeting which was planned in the town of Holten yesterday, because his bodyguards said that it was unsafe. SImilarly, he has been forced to abandon a meeting in Friesland, for the same reasons.

Expatica reports that WIlder's bodyguards insist that all people attending any meetings must firstly pass through an electronic gate, which detects metal objects. To hire just one of these for one night costs 1,000 Euros ($1,283), and Wilders does not have the funds to afford these.

He told 'De Volkskrant' newspaper: "We don't have that. We are a small party. This means the end of my campaign."

He has requested assistance from the Justice Ministry, but they have refused to help. A spokesman has said that parties should be responsible for their own security.

Parliament has already supported the notion of security for Mr Wilders' campaign. Frans Weisglas, the parliament chairman, has said: "We believe the government must ensure that everyone can conduct a campaign in all freedom. Money should not be an obstacle."

This month, the broadcaster TROS cancelled an appearance by Geert Wilders because of the high costs of security. Now Mr Wilders is hoping that the Justice Minister himself, Piet Hein Donner, will intervene to allow security funding.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 9:19 PM | Comments (0)

UK: Arguments Over Muslim "Faith-Schools"

Last week, Britain's Communities Secretary, Ruth Kelly, made a speech at the inauguration of the Commission on Integration and Cohesion on Wednesday, August 23, in which she gave fulsome praise to the multi-ethnic society of Britain. There was little in this speech to outrage PC proponents. She said: "...I believe that we should celebrate and clearly articulate the benefits that migration and diversity have brought - but while celebrating that diversity we should also recognise that the landscape is changing, changing rapidly. And we should not shy away from asking - and trying to respond to - some of the more difficult questions that arise.

I believe it is time now to engage in a new and honest debate about integration and cohesion in the UK. If we are to have an effective, progressive response to these issues, then we must be honest about the challenges we face and be prepared to meet these head on with renewed energy and impetus."

Nothing too controversial there, then. However, despite her praise in this speech for the "work in Bradford aimed at developing a citizenship curriculum for Madrassas", at the weekend, she made a fierce attack on some Muslim faith schools while talking to the BBC on its News 24 strand. Here, she argued that Muslim "faith-schools" which propagated "isolationism and extremism should be closed.

She still peppered her comments with PC-friendly comments, such as: "When I see a Muslim woman wearing a headscarf or a hijab, I don't feel threatened, I celebrate it."

Her comments about Islamic schools which promoted segregation have provoked criticisms, which will be described later. But to understand the irony and hypocrisy of her contradictory comments, one must first remember that Ruth Kelly, herself a devout Catholic, was previously the Education Minister. While holding this post, she had helped to promote these same faith schools, which she now claims include some which foster segregation.

Tony Blair has always encouraged such faith-schools, even though these have been deeply unpopular with the general public. In November 2001, a poll by You Gov found that 80% of the British public were against increases in religious schools. The poll involved 5,979 individuals, and had been taken in the first part of the month. This was a month after the horrors of 9/11.

The Education secretary at that time was Estelle Morris, herself a former teacher, and Tony Blair was said to be 'personally committed' to encouraging more religious groups to set up their own schools, with a lessening of the capital required to start such ventures. Estelle Morris' support for such groups was widely criticised by varying groups, including Keith Porteous Wood of the National Secular Society. Morris was suggesting faith-schools should be more inclusive and allow students from other faiths to enroll.

The then-education spokesman for the Tory party, Damien Green, had criticised Morris for suggesting that such schools should include other faith-oriented pupils, saying: "Parents will value faith schools as they are at the moment. The government needs to decide whether they actually support faith-based schools."

Last year, when Ruth Kelly was the Education Minister, another poll was taken by ICM for the Guardian, and it showed that the public were still overwhelmingly against faith schools. The poll found that 64% of those questioned thought "the government should not be funding faith schools of any kind".

And since then the arguments have continued. On April 11 this year, teachers from the Association of Teachers and Lecturers voted in favour of a call to the government to ban the funding of faith schools from the public purse. But a week later, on April 18 the National Union of Teachers voted against any ban to end faith-based state education, despite a motion which said that these schools led to ethnic conflict, extremism and "even terrorism".

So Ruth Kelly's comments come on top of an already contentious debate. The majority of the public reject the idea of their tax money being used to fund schools which suggest Mohammed the "prophet" was the living ambassador of God, and teachers themselves are polarised over the issue of such schools.

The full text of Ruth Kelly's speech to the Commission on Integration and Cohesion can be found here. It is hardly world-shattering in its mundane acceptance of the diversity of UK culture and society, aimed at an audience which already promotes such an interpretation of society.

But her comments to the BBC are more sharp, even though they whitewash aspects of the current situation. "Most Muslims would call those terrorists who would undermine the fabric of this society as not true Muslims but revolutionaries who are cowering under the cloak of Islam," she said. She advised that countering such extremism would require having communications with "these law-abiding Muslims people in this country who try to combat that."

We reported on August 14 how her previous attempts to talk to Muslim "representatives" about the Islamist extremism led to one individual, Dr Syed Aziz Pasha OBE, having the audacity to suggest that if Muslims in Britain had sharia law, then that would combat extremism.

She said to the BBC that the government would never countenance sharia law in Britain: "We are not going down that route. We don't think that's compatible with Britain being a tolerant, diverse society that welcomes people of different faiths."

But she was firm about Islamic faith schools that promoted isolationism, saying that the government had to "stamp out" such establishments. She said: "They should be shut down. Different institutions are open to abuse and where we find abuse we have got to stamp it out and prevent that happening."

On Muslims who celebrated terror at home and abroad, she said: ""The bottom line is, if they are glorifying terrorism, if they are criminals, if they are breaking the law in this country then they should be arrested and dealt with appropriately. We've got to say that clearly and not be afraid to say it, and work with the community and the Muslim community as well."

Trevor Phillips, the Chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, caused controversy last year, when he suggested that immigrants from the Indian sub-continent were choosing to live in segregated ghettoes in Britain's cities. However, the Times reports that yesterday, Phillps argued in favour of Muslim faith-based schools. He was addressing the Royal Geographic Society, and made a veiled hint at Ruth Kelly's comments. He spoke of the commonly-held view that faith-schools, and Muslim faith-schools especially, were incompatible with integration.

Phillips said: "What the proponents of this view really want to say is one of two things. One, a perfectly valid view, is that religion should be banned from the public sphere and practised only in private if at all. The other, not at all valid in my view, is that Muslims can't be trusted to run schools, like Christians have done for centuries."

But perhaps the most angry critic of Ruth Kelly's comments came from with in her own constituency. Kelly is MP for Bolton West, and a Muslim woman from Bolton, Komal Adris, has condemned her comments about Islamic schools which promote "isolationism and extremism". Ms Adris is from the northern branch of the Muslim Public Affairs Committee

The Bolton Evening News reports that Ms Adris has said that Kelly had made faith-schools a "scapegoat".

She said: "We've had a faith school in Bolton for a long time, and I don't think we've had a problem. I think faith schools are just becoming a new scapegoat, because outside the school there's a whole community which pupils are engaging in. The government risks creating isolation themselves by singling out Muslim faith schools."

A councillor for Bolton, Rosa Kay, said: "I think faith schools have come a long way. Many make places available for pupils of other faiths, so there is a level of integration. I think understanding begins in schools, and I certainly wouldn't want to eliminate any faith schools."

"I just think it is important to encourage children to understand each other's religions. In Bolton we have the Interfaith Council, which works with schools to promote that understanding."

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 5:35 PM | Comments (1)

Sudan: Al-Bashir's Regime to Consider Paul Salopek's "Spying" Case

A Chicago Tribune reporter charged with espionage will have his case reviewed "out of humanitarian concern" by the Sudanese government, the Sudan Tribune reports.

Paul Salopek, a Pulitzer winner, was arrested earlier this month and charged with "espionage, passing information illegally, and writing false news." His arrest is part of a campaign by the Islamic regime of Omar al-Bashir to stop damaging news reports coming out of the Darfur region. The U.S. State Department has been trying to Mr. Salopek's release.

Charging unfriendly reporters with trumped-up crimes is a time-tested and quite effective technique of stopping unfriendly news reports. After the independent reporters have been intimidated away, stooges may be allowed to report what the authorities want to be reported. Robert Fisk may be awarded an exclusive report at this point. Sometimes the deception is so effective the stooge reporter "earns" a Pulitzer Prize.

The Darfur Jihad, which follows the far more deadly but largely ignored Jihad against the Christian and Animist populations of Sudan's South, has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, although accurate estimates may never be known. (Darfur Genocide estimates 400,000 people have died so far.)

Posted by Ruy Diaz at 11:44 AM | Comments (0)

August 29, 2006

Bangladesh: Government Condones Islamists' Death Threats

We reported on August 12 that a bomb had been thrown at Rajshahi University by student activists of the Islami Chhatra Shabir (ICS). The group is the student wing of the second largest party in the government's 4-party coalition, Jamaat-e-Islami.

We discussed Jamaat-e-Islami, its history of siding with Pakistan against the Bengali populace during the war of independence which led to Bangladesh seceding from Pakistan in 1971. The Jamaat-e-Islami leader, Motiur Rahman Nizami, ordered the killing of countless Hindus at this time while he was head of ICS, its student wing.

The Jamaat-e-Islami, like its counterpart in Pakistan, seeks to establish sharia rule over Bangladesh, and therefore had a lot in common with the Islamist terrorist group Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB). All seven leaders of the JMB's ruling council had links with the Islami Chhatra Shabir and/or Jamaat-e-Islami. On May 29, five members of JMB's ruling council were sentenced for death for killing two judges in a bomb attack in November last year.

We discussed the links between the JMB and the government on August 17, anniversary of the nationwide serial bombings carried out by JMB and its partner Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB) whose leader Bangla Bhai was also a member of JMB's ruling council.

The government seems oblivious to the excesses of Jamaat-e-Islami and its vicious student wing, and makes no effort to condemn the violence done in its name.

And again, the fanatics of Islami Chhatra Shabir are making headlines again, this time for threatening the life of a nationally renowned author and man of letters, Hasan Azizul Haq. This man is also a professor at Rajshahi University. What makes the threat so serious is that Islami Chhatra Shabir members already murdered a professor at the same university. Professor S. Taher Ahmed of the Geology & Mining Department had been murdered on February 3. One of the three arrested in the killing claimed that another lecturer at the University, Mahbubul Alam Salehi, had been named as one of those who gave the order for Professor Ahmed to be killed.

Salehi had fled after the murder, but was later arrested. He had been released from bail at the start of this month, and had gone back to the university, guarded by police, to hold a rally. Salehi is head of the local Islami Chhatra Shabir faction at Rajshahi. It was in response to protests against his visit that a homemade bomb was thrown by ICS students, a device which injured two fine arts students.

We also mentioned how on December 24, 2004, another professor from the same Rajshahi University, 65-year old Dr Mohammad Younus (Yunus) of the Department of Economics was brutally murdered by three members of Islami Chhatra Shabir. After being gagged with a towel, Professor Yunus was stabbed in the chest, stomach, head and torso by his assailants. Though carried out by ICS activists, the killing had been ordered by Abdur Rahman, the head of JMB, who is now awaiting a death sentence.

And on Friday November 16, 2003, a Hindu professor at Chittagong in the southeast of Bangladesh was attacked by six members of Islami Chhatra Shabir at his home. Professor Muhuri, principal of the Nazirhat College, was shot through the head, causing his skull to explode (pictured -graphically). The killer who shot him was allowed to escape punishment because of his connections to the government.

Professor Hasan Azizul Haq is only the latest professor to be threatened by Islami Chhatra Shabir, and so far, the Jamaat-e-Islami has failed to say anything about the matter, no arrests have been made, and it is doubtful if any arrests will be made until Haq becomes the victim of a killing.

And what was the lecturer and award-winning author's crime? He had made a speech promoting secularism in education. He made the speech at a seminar on August 21, and on August 24, a rally was held by ICS at the campus of Rajshahi University, in which speakers claimed that the author should either leave the country like Taslima Nasrin, or to die like Professor Humayun Azad.

Professor Azad, the author of 50 books and a supporter of women's rights was brutally attacked by three men armed with butcher's knives outside the Bangla Academy in Dhaka, on February 27, 2004. The attempted murder was ordered by Abdur Rahman, head of JMB, on account of Professor Azad's "blasphemy". The attack did not kill the author and academic, but on August 14 that year, he died in an apartment in Munich.

The students who were calling for the death of Professor Hasan Azizul Haq were fired up by two newspaper reports which had been published in pro-Jamaat dailies, Natun Probhat and Naya Diganta, describing and condemning his calls for secularism to be respected. At the rally, activists disseminated copies of the articles.

Professor Haq claimed that the articles were total concoctions, and bore no resemblance to the actual comments he had made at the August 21 seminar.

The rally had been convened by Zulfikar Nayeem, and those who spoke there included Mahbubur Rahman, Mokhlesur Rahman, Abul Alim and Nomani. They called Professor Haq "Nastik and enemy of Islam", and said he was not welcome on the canvas, and burned an effigy of the renowned author and educationalist.

His most ennerving comment in his speech had been a criticism of the way the government recognised Qawami madrassa degrees, calling such a move "a communal step that demeans the constitution....The state and religion are separate things. The fusion of religion with the mainstream national education and state system can never be accepted. It will be very dangerous for countrymen irrespective of religion."

Shabir said at first that he was not intimidated, and said his speech had concerned education, the state, and secularism, not religion. However, on Sunday August 27 he filed a report with the police at Rajshahi, requesting that he and his family should receive protection.

But Professor Haq was not the only academic and thinker to be threatened by the Islami Chhatra Shabir - also attacked and threatened was Muhammad Zafar Iqbal, head of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology in Sylhet, northeast Bangladesh. Zafar Iqbal is also an award-winning science fiction writer, who also holds to the secular model of education in Bangladesh.

Zafar Iqbal studied in Dhaka University and completed his Ph.D. from University of Washington. Later he worked as a scientist at California Institute of Technology and Bell Communication Research. His research area revolves around physics, computer, electronics and fibre optic communication. He designed one of the first Bangla word processors in 1984.

His books are aimed mainly at the young, children and adolescents, and aim to inspire in them an interest in science. His books are popular, and he was won awards for these. He spent 18 years living in the United States before taking up his professorship at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology.

The threats to these two noted educationalists have been roundly condemned, and the Awami League, the main opposition party has stated through its general secretary, Abdul Jalil, that the Jamaat-e-Islami and the Islami Chhatra Shabir have been working to make the country a haven for Islamist militants. Jalil said that the Jammat/Shibir wanted to kill the non-communal, democratic intellectuals, politicians and litterateurs. Jalil demanded the immediate arrest and exemplary punishments of culprits, but in Bangladesh, a nation governed by corruption, and preparing for a general election at the start of next year, such hopes are meaningless. Seventeen prominent individuals signed a statement condemning the threats, and claiming that the government was giving shelter to militants.

The nature of the threats are barbaric. Syed Badrul Ahsan is the executive editor of the Dhaka Courier, and describes how the Islami Chhatra Shabir militants have threatened to slice Professor Haq of Rajshahi University into small pieces, and to cut out Zafar Iqbal's tongue.

Mr Ahsan writes a history of the Jamaat-e-islami and their youth wing ICS from the time when Bangladesh struggled to gain its independence from Pakistan, a struggle which cost 3 million lives. A powerful indictment of the malevolent forces at work within Islamist movements, the article is worth reading. This is just an extract:

Note with how much clarity the fundamentalists have served notice on Muhammad Zafar Iqbal, the academic and writer we all know and respect so avidly. He is a brave man every inch of the way. But even bravery sometimes finds itself in a straitjacket.

Zafar Iqbal has been warned, in no uncertain terms and in manner reminiscent of all those wonderfully scripted murder thrillers produced in Hollywood, that unless he stops spouting secular notions of life, he will have his tongue cut out. What will then happen to that severed tongue has not been spelt out.

So much for democracy, for the right of a person to disagree with another. But whoever said people who have been playing communal politics and have found their niche in organizations like the Jamaat and the Muslim League believe in democratic pluralism?

Way back in 1953, the Jamaat-e-Islami under Abul A'la Maudoodi created mayhem in Lahore, so much so that blood flowed along the streets of the city. And it would not stop until General Azam Khan came along. In those days of Jamaat initiation into the politics of violence, the targets were men of unimpeachable integrity like Sir Zafrullah Khan. No, no one wanted to have his tongue cut out or have his body turned into mincemeat. But he had to be pushed out of Islam because he swore by the Ahmadiyya version of faith.

In the years since then, Maudoodi's followers have come a long way. Some of the best moments of their lives came in 1971 when Golam Azam swiftly made it a point, per courtesy of the Pakistani genocide, to offer assistance to Tikka Khan in the matter of doing away with the miscreants out to destroy Islam and Pakistan in these parts. The miscreants, of course, were seventy-five million Bengalis whose very simple wish was to assert themselves in the politics of their own land.

While the country prepares itself for the general elections, the violence and the threats are going to increase. Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh's main council may all be behind bars, with the majority awaiting hanging, but their footsoldiers remain. And their allies in government, always ready to seize an opportunity, are allowing the activists of Jamaat-e-Islami to run free, intimidating the defenders of freedom of speech, and trampling on the spirit of independence and secularism that first gave birth to Bangladesh.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 11:54 PM | Comments (0)

Indonesia: Death Row Christians Charged In Muslim Conflict Appeal

We reported on August 13 that the fate of three Christians, whose trial breached even Indonesia's haphazard interpretations of justice, were granted a temporary last minute reprieve, delaying their execution. The three men, Fabianus Tibo, 60, Marinus Riwu, 48, Dominggus da Silva, 42 (pictured below), were due to have been shot by firing squad at an undisclosed location on Palu in Central Sulawesi on August 12. Because of national Independence Day celebrations, the executions were delayed.

The three men were tried and sentenced to death in April 2001, accused of inciting religious attacks and committing premeditated murder of Muslims at Poso in May 2000, though there is little to no evidence to substantiate this. The riots took place on May 23, 2000, and 191 people were killed. At their trial, militant Muslims were at the courthouse, chanting for their death, which may have influenced the verdict. In addition, vital evidence was ignored by the court.

Left to right - Fabianus Tibo, 60, Marinus Riwu, 48, Dominggus da Silva, 42

Before the executions were delayed, Pope Benedict XVI and representatives of the European Union had pleaded for clemency. Last year, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had rejected appeals to save the men's lives, despite appeals from Christian groups, US senators and international groups such as the Jubilee Foundation and Amnesty International.

On the Friday, the day before the executions were scheduled, the Jakarta Post reported that in the province of East Nusa Tenggara, where the men came from, thousands of people protested.

On Sunday August 13, leaders of the Indonesian Bishops Conference (KWI) wrote to the president saying that the country had ratified an international treaty on civil and political rights, which required the acknowledgement and respect of citizens' right to live, and argued for the death penalty to be abolished.

"We appeal to the government ... to abolish capital punishment for good.," the letter stated.

The lawyers for the three men also submitted names and details of 16 men who are thought to have been the real instigators of the violence which took place.

Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda said: "The execution has not been canceled, just delayed. We did receive letters from various quarters, including the one from the Vatican, although I didn't see it personally."

Father Maxi Un Bria, Chairman of the Commission for Justice and Peace, said: "There is no dignity in execution, because humans assume the divine authority of taking a man's life, in the name of the law."

Even Mahendradatta, lawyer for three Islamists who are due to be sentenced to death for their role in the 2002 Bali bombings, claimed the decision to execute the three Christians was suspicious, as it came so close to the proposed executions of the three Muslims.

Islamists claimed that if the three Christians were not executed, then Muslims in Poso and Tojo Una-Una would be holding protests.

On Monday August 14 the government insisted that the executions of the three Catholics would take place. Chief security minister Widodo Adi Sucipto said: "We are currently in the phase of executing the court ruling. The execution will still be carried out."

On the Saturday, Amnesty International, according to AFP had written: "Amnesty International welcomes the recent stay of executions of Fabianus Tibo, Dominggus da Silva and Marinus Riwu and urges the Indonesian government to immediately transform this act of clemency into the commutation of their death sentences. The organization also calls on the authorities to review their trial, which was reportedly unfair."

In today's Jakarta Post, it is reported that the three men have made a further request for clemency from Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

According to Roy Rening, lawyer for one of the three men, their second appeal was made "because their trials were full of fabrications."

Currently the three men are being held in isolation in Palu jail. Roy Rening said: "The isolation is killing them because the three are not permitted to meet their families, lawyers and spiritual leaders."

The Jakarta Post states:

Some analysts have said the government of this predominantly Muslim nation is wavering because it does not want to risk public anger by executing the Bali bombers -- Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, Ali Gufron and Imam Samudra -- before the Christians.

. Mahendratta, lawyer for the three Muslims said: "People were asking, 'Why Amrozi first, and not Tibo?' For me, it is a simple matter: just follow the death row queue. Tibo and his friends got convicted first, and they should be executed first."

The office of President Susilo has received the letter, but there is no sign that he will act to prevent the execution from going ahead.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 7:44 PM | Comments (0)

UK: 12 Year Old Abducted For Forced Marriage In Pakistan

The girl at left is Molly Campbell, pictured with her mother Louise. Molly is sometimes known as Misbah Iram Ahmed Rana. Her father is a Muslim from Pakistan, who married Louise when she was 16 and he was 23. The couple had four children, and Molly is the youngest. The marriage ended but the father, Sajad Rana, wanted Molly to live with him. Louise has legal custody of Molly, and has had to move from Glasgow to other locations, because of the father's attempts to abduct the child, who wants to live with her mother.

The story, as carried by the BBC makes no mention of the father's intentions - to have her married off to a man in Pakistan who is 25 years old. On Friday (August 25) Molly was kidnapped from outside her school in Stornoway on the island of Lewis in the Western Isles by her 18 year old sister, Tahmina.

She was taken to the local airport and then flown to Glasgow airport, states the Scottish Daily Record and the Guardian, where she was then put on a plane with her father and taken to Pakistan. The father had hired a private investigator to locate Molly's whereabouts. They are now believed to be in Lahore in the Punjab, or Karachi, where Rana has relatives.

Her grandmother, 67-year old Violet Robertson, said: "It's just terrible. Molly is only a little girl. It's an arranged marriage. She doesn't know the man. He's 25. Molly doesn't want to go to Pakistan. She wants to stay with her mum."

Louise's plea for the return of her daughter and her comments about her loss can be found here.

Though Pakistan never signed up to the Hague Conention, a treaty designed to deal with returning children to their legal guardians. However British judges have signed another agreement with the Pakistani authorities, which similarly should address the issue. So far, it has never been tested in Scotland. Currently police in the Western Isles are liaising with Interpol and the Procurator Fiscal to work on means to bring Molly back.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 6:32 PM | Comments (0)

UK: Request For Muslim Terror Suspect's Extradition From Pakistan

News from the Guardian, from AKI and Dawn relates that Britain has requested that one of the suspects in the Operation Overt terror investigation be extradited from Pakistan. 26-year old Rashid Rauf (pictured left) is currently being detained in Pakistan, suspected of being a key figure in the plot to bring down several US-bound planes using liquid explosives. When Rashid Rauf was arrested in Bahawalpur in the Punjab, this was the trigger of several arrests on August 10 in Britain.

Currently, his father, 52-year old Abdul Rauf, is also in custody in Pakistan, as we mentioned on August 19. He had been arrested as he tried to board a plane to Birmingham. The Charity Commission was investigating claims that a charity Abdul Rauf had founded, Crescent Relief, had been involved in diverting funds aimed at alleviation of the plight of victims of the October 8 earthquake in Pakistan towards terrorism. The charity has since had its assets frozen. Abdul Rauf stepped down from the charity in 2003.

The request to have his son Rashid extradited does not officially involve the terror plot with which he is suspected of playing a key part. Instead, it relates to the murder of Rashid Rauf's uncle. 54-year old Mohammed Saeed was stabbed near his home in Alum Rock, Birmingham, in April 2002, and while police were conducting their inquiries, Rashid fled to Pakistan.

As early as August 15, Pakistan suggested that it may extradite Rashid Rauf to Britain in connection with the terror plot, which is believed to have involved al Qaeda, but no formal extradition request had then been made by UK authorities. Officially there is no extradition treaty between the two countries.

On August 26, Dawn reported that the UK had formally approached the foreign affairs ministry in Islamabad, to seek the return to Britain of the terror suspect. At that time, Pakistan's interior minister, Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao, and its foreign office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam had claimed to be unaware of such a request.

Now, Tasnim Aslam has said: "Yes, they have sought his extradition and the matter is under consideration." She denies that Rashid Rauf was arrested in Bahawalpur, saying: "Mr Rauf was arrested in Rawalpindi. Presently he is under detention and we are investigating his involvement in terrorist activities in three areas – his link with Al Qaeda, threat projected to the UK; and threat projected in Pakistan. The information being obtained from our investigations is being shared with the UK through appropriate channels." She told a reporter that she had "no clue" about arrests in Bahawalpur.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 5:11 PM | Comments (0)

Iran: Islamist Regime Forces Women To Cover Up

In May we wrote that Gholam Hossein Elham, a spokesman for Iran's Islamist government, had stated that the issue of making women wear appropriate Islamic dress would be achieved through "cultural work and not the use of force."

Today's Telegraph reports that in Tehran, Iran's capital, such "cultural" measures have been abandoned in favour of legal enforcement. So far, during this month, a total of 64,000 women have been forced to cover their hair and wear long overcoats in public, despite the sweltering temperatures of late summer.

According to Mohammad Reza Alipour of Tehran's police, 63,963 women have been issued with official warnings about their dress being "un-Islamic", with some of these forced to sign pledges to affirm they will "dress properly".

Human Rights Watch's Hadi Ghaemi states that the current trend of forcing women into shrouding garb is something not seen for a decade, and is part of a drive under Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to impose Islamic codes.

Ghaemi states that how a person is treated under these rules depends on their status: "The person could end up in jail depending on their relationship with the authorities."

In addition to imposing strict "Islamic" dress upon women, other previously rulings are now being enforced where satellite dishes are being confiscated from private apartment blocks.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 4:12 PM | Comments (0)

Belgium: Islamist AEL Founder To Leave Country Next Year

We wrote on February 5, at the height of the Danish Cartoon affair, that the Arab European League was joining in with disgustingly anti-semitic cartoons, including one showing Hitler in bed with Anne Frank, by its resident talentless "cartoonist" Nabucho.

The Arab European League (AEL) is based in Holland and Belgium, and was founded by Dyab Abou Jahjah (pictured), who justified his vile cartoons by saying: "Europe has its sacred cows, even if they're not religious sacred cows." The AEL officially is against violence, but it is vehemently against the integration of Muslims with non-Muslims.

This autumn, Dyab Abou Jahjah will be facing trial in Belgium, where he is currently based, for his involvement with race riots which took place in 2002 in Antwerp. These happened after a Moroccan-origin teacher, Mohamed Achrak, was shot in Borgerhout, a poor suburb of the city on November 26. Also to face trial with Jahjah will be two other members of the AEL, Ahmed Azzuz and Youssef Rahimi.

According to Expatica, Jahjah has said of the upcoming trial that "we hope to book a new judicial victory against the Belgian establishment that wants to criminalise our movement."

While the Lebanese/Israeli conflict was going on, Abou Jahjah went back to his home country of Lebanon, but returned unexpectedly last Tuesday. On the English language version of the AEL website, Jahjah says the battle of his people (Muslims) is against "the fascist army of Israel".

He founded the Arab European League in Belgium, and though it also operates in the Netherlands, arguing for immigrant Muslim's "rights" in both countries, there is currently a crisis of leadership in the Dutch division.

Expatica states that the Belgian newspaper "De Standaard" had claimed he would return permanently to Lebanon "by 2009", but now, it is announced that he will be going back to his home country by the start of 2007.

The announcement was made on the Dutch-language version of the AEL website.

And his departure will be mourned by few. In 1999 and 2003 the AEL stood for elections under different names, but failed to get any more than 1% of the vote. Why Europe gives these Islamists a place to live confounds anyone with an iota of rationality. Abou Jahjah, by announcing he is leaving, shows he only ever saw Europe as a recruiting ground to draw Muslims into anti-integrationism, and never saw it as his home.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 7:10 AM | Comments (0)

Australia: "Jihad Jack" Placed Under Control Order

We reported on August 18 that former Melbourne taxi driver Joseph Thomas, or "Jihad Jack" (pictured left) had been released from prison, after charges for which he had been convicted on February 26 were quashed. Thomas had been accused of receiving money from Al Qaeda, He had confessed during detention in Pakistan that he had been given US $3,500 (Aus $4,750) by one Khaled bin Attash, an Al Qaeda operative belived to have been involved in planning the attack against USS Cole in Aden in 2000.

Thomas had been detained in Pakistan, and according to him, he had been threatened with violence by a US interrogator, and subjected to physical abuse by a Pakistani interrogator. He had been detained in January 2003, but it was not until March of that year that members of the Australian Federal Police (AFP) had interviewed him. The confessions he had made to the AFP formed the bulk of the evidence with which he had been convicted.

However, on August 18, appeal justices Chris Maxwell, Frank Vincent and Peter Buchanan at the Victoria Court of Appeal ruled that Thomas' confessions had been made while he was under duress. The first man to be convicted under Australia's new terror laws, the decision of the judges was considered a blow in the fight against terrorism.

Prosecutors suggested that they would appeal against the ruling, and requested that an interview made by Jihad Jack for ABC with reporter Sally Neighbour should be submitted as evidence before the court. In this TV interview for the Four Corners program, given in February of this year, Jihad Jack freely confesses to the charges on which he was ultimately convicted and then acquitted. The Court of Appeal are still considering this request.

Today, Jihad Jack has made the headlines again, as he has now become the first person to become subject to a control order, limiting his activities and associations. Control orders were among the new measures brought in in Premier Howard's new raft of anti-terror legislation.

The news is reported by the Australian, the Melbourne Age and the Sydney-based Daily Telegraph.

The control order was issued by the AFP yesterday, and required that Jihad Jack return immediately from a vacation he was taking. The control order was authorised at the Federal Magistrates Court in Canberra on Sunday, following a request from Philip Ruddock, the Attorney General.

The order was presented to Thomas as he holidayed on a beach with his Indonesian-born wife Maryati and his children. His brother Les was outraged, saying: "He was slapped with a court order and told to get back to Melbourne immediately. We didn't expect them to stoop this low. Anyone who cares about civil liberties should be outraged."

Joseph Thomas must be in his home on a curfew between midnight and 5 am every day. He must report to police three times a week, and is forbidden from leaving Australia. He is also forbidden to use some internet service providers, and is restricted to only certain phone companies' services. Rob Stary, Thomas' lawyer, said he would appeal the control order in court later this week. He said he first became aware of the control order after it had been served on his client.

Philip Ruddock would not discuss the control order before it had been passed by the courts, but said: "When you're seeking to protect the Australian community, the system of control orders replicates that that has been put in place in the UK."

Unfortunately for people in Britain, Mr Justice Sullivan, a UK judge has ruled that control orders as they had been enforced in Britain contradicted the European Convention on Human Rights.

Lex Lasry, another lawyer who defended Thomas in the original trial and the appeal said that Philip Ruddock had "maligned and vilified" Jihad Jack, by publicly talking about the details of the control order after it had come into force.

Speaking to ABC radio, Lasry said: "What I am concerned about is the willingness of the attorney-general to convene a press conference in which he effectively maligns Mr Thomas while there are now two matters before the courts. It seems to me that's totally inappropriate."

"The overwhelming message from that and this morning's newspapers is that Mr Thomas is someone from whom the Australian community needs to be protected.....It's an obvious thing to say that it's most unfair in the way he is now being vilified, in a sense at the hands of the Attorney-General."

There are also fears that as his wife Maryati is an associate of Abu Bakar Bashir, who is spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, the group which caused the bombing of the Australian Embassy in Jakarta on September 9, 2004, and as Jemaah Islamiyah also killed 202 tourists, including 88 Australians on Bali in October 2002, that Thomas could be in contact with the Indonesia-based terror group.

Thomas is also, according to the conditions of the control order, forbidden from contacting Osama bin Laden, whom he met while in Afghanistan in 2001.

The AFP had argued in court that Thomas was "vulnerable" and "attractive to aspirant extremists who will seek out his skills and experiences to guide them in achieving their potentially extremist objectives."

"There are good reasons to believe that, given Mr Thomas has received training with al-Qa'ida, he is now an available resource that can be tapped into to commit terrorist acts on behalf of al-Qa'ida or related terrorist cells. Training has provided Mr Thomas with the capability to execute or assist with the execution directly or indirectly of any terrorist acts. Mr Thomas also admitted that while at the al-Qa'ida training camp he undertook weapons training, including the use of explosives, and learned how to assemble and shoot various automatic weapons."

"Mr Thomas is vulnerable. Mr Thomas may be susceptible to the views and beliefs of persons who will nurture him during his reintegration into the community," the police summary stated.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 12:46 AM | Comments (0)

August 28, 2006

US: Islamic Professor Has More Death Threats

Khaled Abou el Fadl is a professor at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA), where he holds the post of Omar and Azmeralda Alfi Professor of Law. Born in Kuwait in 1963 and brought up in Egypt and Kuwait, he has been at UCLA's law faculty since 1998, where he teaches Islamic law, Immigration, Human Rights, International and National Security Law.

He came to America in 1982, after being imprisoned in the Middle East for writing tracts advocating democracy. He has argued that women should be able to lead prayers, and has lectured throughout the Muslim world.

He holds a Ph.D in Islamic Studies from Princeton, and is regarded as the United States' leading authority on Islamic jurisprudence. He is the author of seven books and more than 50 articles on Islam and Islamic law. In some ways, he is considered as a moderate, as he opposes the strict interpretations of Islam as practised by the Wahhabis and Salafists of Saudi Arabia. He claims Wahhabism denigrates women and others, and paved the way for the ideologues of violence such as Osama bin Laden. But in other ways, his critics, such as Daniel Pipes and also Andrew G. Bostom point to more traditional and hardline aspects of his beliefs. He is an ardent supporter of the Saudi-funded Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and still believes that Muslims should be under Sharia law.

It is his interpretation of sharia law, and that other bone of contention - "jihad" that have made some people call him a moderate. In an interview with Qantara he states that suicide bombers are percerting the original concept of "jihad", which he maintains means "struggle" and not "Holy War". He said: "The concept of Jihad is very much different to today's suicide bombings. Jihad also differs from the holy war in the Crusade period, which developed from the doctrine of self-purification through bloodsheds. In the idea of holy war, murder is regarded as a mechanism to approach God and war is regarded as sacred. Hence, any cruelty in war will not be seen as a form of barbarism."

The reason why he appears on Western Resistance is because of the recent claims made in the LA Times, and which are commented upon in the Pakistan Daily Times and also by his critic Daniel Pipes. These claims are that Professor el Fadl is being threatened with death.

Since he first openly denounced the beliefs of Wahhabism, which is the hardline theology followed by the House of Saud in Saudi Arabia which was founded by Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab in the 18th century, he has claimed that he has had many death threats made against him.

In the LA Times article, which was printed on Sunday, August 27, el Fadl claims that in April, as he was standing by the living room door at his California home, a bullet shot past him, and became lodged in a book.

This month, in the newspaper Al-Watan and in other Arabic language media, stories were printed about a "solicitation of murder" with el Fadl as the target. Apparently, his latest supporters of assassination are the Iranians, on account of his support for the Israeli strike against southern Lebanon after Hizbollah captured two soldiers. These Iranian sources apparently claim that el Fadl had advised George W. Bush to support Israel's actions.

He now claims that this news report is a "total fabrication", and claims never to have met President Bush, nor to have supported Israel's actions, which he now condemns.

Recently, el Fadl has been visited by members of the University of California police and the FBI's joint terrorism task force, to warn him to increase his security measures following these reports.

Even the LA Times casts some doubt on a claim by el Fadl that the story of the recent Iran-originated death threat led to requests from at least 20 journalists from Middle Eastern media outlets. A search by MEMRI found only the Al Watan report had carried mention of the threat, earlier this month.

El Fadl states: "I've received so many death threats, and I've never had an impending sense of doom. This time, we're taking it more seriously." He does not know who is behind the threats, but says: "If they scare me into silence, they will have succeeded. I'm not going to give them that victory."

Daniel Pipes is very cynical of the recent announcements of this campaign against him. As Al-Watan is a small publication outlet, based in Anaheim, then Pipes wonders why el Fadl should then further broadcast the threat in the far larger circulation Los Angeles Times.

Dr Pipes argues that the reason could be that el Fadl is an erratic individual, or that el Fadl is "a self-promoter and shameless publicity hound who exploits any opportunity to get his name in the paper, even at the expense of his reputation and security."

In February last year, Daniel Pipes argued that far from condemning Wahhabism, el Fadl has acted as an apologist for the puritanical creed. El Fadl has argued that Wahhabist literature found in American mosques should not be banned.

There are some questions about where el Fadl really stands on anything he promotes. Looking into some of his statements in the Qantara interview, he at first glance seems a moderate, but a second reading shows this not to be the case. In another article by Dr Pipes, el Fadl has some "New Islamist" doctrines, which denounce Wahhabism but are puritanical and extreme in their own way. According to Pipes: "Sheikh Muhammad al-Ghazali (1917-96)), a leading New Islamist, remains one of Abou El Fadl's chief intellectual influences."

In his latest book "The Great Theft: Wrestling Islam from the Extremists" (Harper, San Francisco, 2005) el Fadl calls for a "counter-jihad" of moderate Muslims against austere and puritanical Islam. You can read our review by Xingzhe HERE. Whether he means it as we would perceive it to mean, or means something else entirely, is something only el Fadl would know.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 11:30 PM | Comments (0)

Saudi Arabia: Restrictions On Women Praying At Mecca

News from Reuters via the Pakistan and the Khaleej Times relates that clerics in Saudi Arabia are intending to restrict women's access to the Ka'aba, the meteoric stone at Mecca, in the Grand Mosque. The area around the Ka'aba has become crowded of late, and according to Osama Al Bar, who heads the all-male Institute for Haj Research: "So we decided to get women out of the 'sahn' (Kaaba area) to a better place where they can see the Kaaba and have more space. Some women thought it wasn't good, but from our point of view it will be better for them.... We can sit with them and explain to them what the decision is (about)."

The decision is not final and may be negotiated, but already women's groups are complaining. Suhaila Hammad, who is Saudi herself and a member of an international organisation of Muslim scholars said: "Both men and women have the right to pray in Kaaba. Men have no right to take it away. Men and women mix when they circumambulate the Kaaba, so do they want to make us do that somewhere else too? This is discrimination against women."

The 'sahn' is one of the few places in Saudi Arabia where men and women can pray together, even though there are rules about where or where not women can be situated in this area. The muttawa, or religious policemen of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, already harass women who stray from their designated "areas" around the Ka'aba stone.

Hatoun al-Fassi, a woman historian, said: "Perhaps they want women to disappear from any public prayer area and when it comes to the holy mosques that's their ultimate aim."

She also noted that recently the religious authorities restricted the access of women to the tomb of Mohammed, founder of Islam, at Medina.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 10:14 PM | Comments (0)

Norway: Muslim "Honor" Led To Massive Brawl

Two families from Afghanistan became involved in a feud over "honor" which led to one 45-year old man suffering from life threatening injuries in a brawl on Saturday (26 August), states Aftenposten.

The conflict began on Friday in Lillestrøm, a town northeast of Oslo, Norway's capital. Outside a fast food outlet on the main high street, two sixteen year -olds became engaged in an argument, in which one of the youths made "indicent remarks" about the other one's sister.

Consequently, on Saturday morning, the representatives of both families gave the go-ahead for a fight to take place at 6 pm at Nebbursvollen, site out of an outdoor recreation area. When the allotted time came, about 30 members of the families with others in tow began the fight, which led to the father of one of the boys being in a critical condition in hospital.

Knives and other weapons were involved, and as one of the 16 year-olds said later: "All of my closest family members have been arrested. This is about my own and my family's honor."

23 people were arrested after the incident.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 9:58 PM | Comments (0)

UK Islam: Faces of Fanatacism Part Five

In part five of our occasional series of Muslim fanatics currently infecting Britain's body politic, we will examine the role of 42-year old Abu Abdullah (pictured left) who was formerly an aide to the now-jailed preacher, Abu Hamza, the first subject of this series.

Abu Abdullah was born in Britain to Turkish Cypriot parents in 1964. He was born and raised and London, and his birth name was Attila Ahmet. According to a report from the UK Mirror he worked as a soccer coach before he "converted" to radical Islam about eight years ago. He was coach to the Sydenham Boys, Athenlay, and Fisher Athletic, where he earned the nickname "Attila the Hun".

According to Brian Miller, the chairman of the Bexley League: "He was a nutter, very volatile and took it far too seriously. Once I had to referee the managers - not the game."

He apparently was known to colleagues then under the name of "Alan". In 1998, when Attila Ahmet "converted" to Islam and changed his name in the process, he abandoned soccer altogether.

A father of four children, Abu Abdullah was the subject of an article in yesterday's Sunday Times which highlights how the associate of hook-handed Abu Hamza is now openly defying the law by praising the four suicide bombers who killed 52 people on London Transport, and maimed and injured hundreds more.

The UK introduced its Terrorism Act 2006 in April, and this explicitly outlaws the glorification of terrorism. Schedule 1, section 1 (3) qualifies such terms of encouragement of terrorism as a statement which "(a) glorifies the commission or preparation (whether in the past, in the future or generally) of such acts or offences; and (b) is a statement from which those members of the public could reasonably be expected to infer that what is being glorified is being glorified as conduct that should be emulated by them in existing circumstances."

The penalties for this are a maximum of 7 years' jail or a fine, or both, when convicted following an indictment, and up to 12 months' imprisonment upon a summary conviction.

Abu Abdullah now heads a group calling itself Supporters of Sharia which was founded by his friend Abu Hamza when the hook-handed cleric was imam at the Finsbury Park Mosque.

And it is apparently to this group that Abdullah is directing his comments, in blatant defiance of the law, and with the authorities either oblivious or unwillingto take action against him.

Since the law was passed outlawing the glorification of terrorism, Abdullah has also said that he would "love" to kill British troops based in Afghanistan. He described the attacks of 9/11, 2001 as a "deserved punch in the nose" for the United States.

Barred from preaching in most mosques, Abdullah is allowed to make these statements at small meetings held at community centers in London and the adjoining Home Counties.

Last week, according to the Times, he said of the 7/7 bombers: "I wasn't against them. We don't celebrate each other....but these are my honourable brothers in Islam.....Sometimes the innocent have to pay the price....of course it is solving things."

Abdullah also described the 7/7 attacks as a "wake-up call", but whether this was a wake-up call for the UK public that Islamist terrorists lived amongst them, or a wake-up call to Muslims to become radicalized is not specified. He called suicide attacks "halal" or Islamically lawful.

He said of the suicide bomber's role: "He doesn't have weapons of mass destruction, he only has household chemicals....The West is escalating their killing of Muslims. We have a right to defend ourselves. If I had the means to go back there [Afghanistan] and kill an American or British soldier then I would love to do so."

He is virulently anti-semitic. Even though he formerly praised the 9/11 attacks and said that he loved Osama bin Laden more than himself, he now claims those events were stage-managed by Mossad, the Israeli secret service. He called Jews "a treacherous people", and justified a 9/11 style attack upon the White House because he saw George W, Bush as "a scalp that needs to be taken."

On October 14, 2004, Abdullah gave an interview to the Public Broadcasting Service. At that time, following the ousting of Abu Hamza, Abdullah was the leader of the Finsbury Park Mosque.

He claimed then that his real conversion had happened 12 years' previously, in 1992, when he first heard Islam preached in Arabic. He had been only a "nominal" Muslim up until that point. "I was a person that was full of desires, from gambling to other things. There was a stage when I was involved with heavy people. I'm talking about seriously heavy people."

He claimed then that his companion Abu Hamza had been "demonized further than he can be demonized". He said then that he felt "an amount of feelings for certain people in this country. The everyday person, the layman, the civilian", which would have prevented him from fighting against UK forces abroad. It appears that now he has either abandoned that position, or was lying to the PBS interviewer.

But he did justify armed jihad in some circumstances, and claimed violence is encouraged in the Koran: "Allah mentioned jihad in the Quran 26 times, and Allah mentioned quital 79 times. Quital is fighting by a physical fighting -- 79 times."

He said: "People see us as extremists because we don't compromise the religion of Allah. We accept it with every word and every utterance of our beloved prophet Muhammad, that no Muslim can turn away from one ayah of the Quran, one verse of the Quran. If we don't accept this, we actually become disbelievers."

He had contempt for the extremist-supporting hierarchy of the Muslim Council of Britain, condemning them as heretics. He said: "They have invented their own religion and [are] brainwashing the ignorant Muslim that doesn't fully understand the Quran. And this is how they're going, with the support of Tony Blair, to turn fellow Muslims against me or against the likes of Osama bin Laden and etc. and etc. and etc. The ultimate thing is that they're turning them away from the prophet, peace be upon him."

Virtually the same contempt for the so-called moderate Muslims who make deals with the UK government was later made by Mohamed Sidique Khan, one of the 7/7 bombers, in his Al Qaeda-produced "farewell" video which we transcribed earlier: "Our so-called scholars today are content with their Toyotas and semi-detached houses. They seem to think their responsibilities lie with pleasing the khuffar instead of Allah, so they tell us ludicrous things, like "you must obey the law of the land". So how na- how on earth did we conquer lands in the past if we were to obey by this, this law? By Allah, these scholars will be brought to account, and if they fear the British government more than they fear Allah, then they must desist in doing talks, lectures, and passive fatwas and they need to stay at home where they are useless, and leave the job to the real men, the true inheritors of the Prophets.

Abu Abdullah's position at the Finsbury Park Mosque was not to last for long after his PBS interview. As they had done with the thugs who supported Anu Hamza, the trustees of the mosque finally invoked the law, and on February 8, 2005, the Mirror reported that when the trustees, accompanied by riot police confronted Abdullah, he finally agreed to leave the mosque.

According to Ihtisham Hibatullah, of the (extremist-supporting) Muslim Association of Britain: "He was told he wasn't welcome. There were angry words. But with police outside, he left. This man and his followers were damaging the community and the reputation of Islam. Ordinary Muslims were afraid to come here. The mosque can hold 1,000 people but only ever had about 80."

The locks on the mosque were subsequently changed, to prevent Abdullah and his thugs gaining control again.

After being routed from the Finsbury Park Mosque, Abdullah and his thugs then descended upon the East London Mosque in Whitechapel. Inayat Bunglawala of the MCB said that he and about a dozen associates interrupted prayers and tried to sabotage a talk on Islamophobia. He said: "He ranted at me that I was teaching poison. Then his goons made trouble. They were chased out and Abdullah was beaten a bit." Abdullah was later seen wearing dark glasses and limping.

Before being ousted from the Finsbury Park Mosque, Abdullah's sermons were recorded by Bobby Pathak, a reporter from the Mirror, who had spent six weeks under cover attending Abdullah's Friday evening (juma) prayer sessions and sermons.

Pathak wrote that Abdullah described non-Muslims as "filthy" disbelievers. And the preacher also praised "our honourable brothers in Guantanamo Bay".

Abdullah said: "If you cannot do what those honourable brothers are doing today...leaving their wives and children to go to the front line, then this is our front line here."

Like all preachers of violence against the West, Abdullah liked to tell his followers that Muslims around the world are victims. He preached on January 7, 2005: "How can we go home and sleep at night knowing there are millions of Muslims screaming for our help? Do we not have a conscience? Or do we think that we're doing the right thing? Brothers and sisters, the time has come for us to stand up and be counted. Behave like Muslims. It's the least you can do so you can find reward on yaum al-qiyamah (afterlife). Otherwise, the fire is beckoning."

A week later, he preached: "While we fast and worship Allah these shaitan (devils) mock Allah's religion and put Allah's religion to the sword." Eight times in the same sermon Abdullah spoke of Muslims being slaughtered.

"They call us extremists. They see us as strange. Our honourable brothers in Guantanamo, they've become strange. Why? Because they're the Haq (truth) and we've let them down. We've forgotten these people in Afghanistan, in prisons, our mothers, sisters that have been raped. Allah constantly sends us signs in our eyes and we turn away. The tsunami disaster - Muslims died in this. But on these Muslim lands, zina (sinful fornication), night-clubs...the Muslims wanted to dilute the dean (greatness) of Allah."

On January 28, Abdullah told young men that it was a sin for them to wear T-shirts "showing muscles" as it made women to have impure thoughts. And he condemned as sinful women who wore make-up outside the house, or who wore tight trousers and a hijab.

He turned his ire to the Muslim Council of Britain - saying they campaigned to "imprison Muslims". He said of the MCB: "Like the Jews that practise the Torah, they want to practise what's good for them and brush aside or sweep under the carpet what they dislike. Stand up against these murtads (leavers of the faith) who say they're the spokesmen or they represent the Islamic community in this country."

A week later, he was unable to perform his Juma sermon, as riot police had forced him onto the street.

The Times yesterday quoted Rachel North, who survived the 7/7 attack, saying of Abdullah: "Given what we know about the roots of radicalisation, I'm surprised that this man has not yet been investigated and charged if he has committed a criminal offence."

A human rights lawyer, Geoffrey Bindman said that Abdullah's current praise of the 7/7 bombers (at least two of which attended sermons at Finsbury Park Mosque) could be interpreted as incitement of others to copy their actions, and said that his anti-semitic comments could also mean that Abdullah could be charged on grounds of incitement to racial or religious hatred.

As terrorism always starts with an idea, then the authorities in Britain should show some moral integrity and enforce the laws that the government introduced this year. And by charging Abdullah, it should set an example, and show to young already-radicalized Muslims that there is no freedom to preach violent jihad and hate in Britain. To do otherwise would be seen as an encouragement.

Previous entries in this series:
Part One - Abu Hamza
Part Two - Abdullah al-Faisal (Abdullah el-Faisal)
Part Three - Abu Izzadeen
Part Four - Anjem Choudary

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 8:40 PM | Comments (0)

Thailand: Muslim Insurgents Slice Off Victim's Ears

Today, according to the Nation a village defense volunteer in the mainly Muslim south was murdered by Islamist insurgents, and his body mutilated. The man, Sa-mael Jeha, aged 56, was found on a road in Sugai Padi district in Narathiwat Province.

He had earlier set off on his motorcycle to deliver Chinese donuts to local coffee houses when he was shot dead by Muslim militants on a village road in Moo Si village in Tambon Rigo.

The militants appear to have tried to cut his head off after he was killed, but failing in this, they chopped off his ears and took them away as trophies.

Yesterday in Yala province, a middle-aged man was shot by militants in a drive-by killing. 57-year old Sujin Jitrban was at a gas station in Kue Long in Bannang Sata district, filling up his pick-up truck when two men on a motorcycle approached and opened fire. Police suspect Muslim militants to have carried out the attack.

These are just two of the latest atrocities in an insurgency that has lasted since January 4, 2004, and claimed 1,400 lives. Initially the insurgency targeted the Buddhist population and priesthood, but recently more Muslim victims are killed by the insurgents, people such as defense volunteers and others who are viewed as "collaborators". Also schools and teachers themselves have been the subjects of insurgent attack. On the first night of the insurgency in 2004, 20 schools were set on fire.

The southern provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat, as well as two districts of Songhkla province, formerly comprised an independent Muslim sultanate called Pattani, before they were officially annexed by Thailand a century ago. The population in these provinces is 80% Muslim, and 20% Buddhist. Since January 4 2004, an insurgency has been carried out by Muslim separatists from several factions, who wish to see the southern region secede from Thailand.

Our last report on the insurgency in the three southern provinces of Thailand was on August 14. Before documenting the tally-sheet of atrocities by the Muslim insurgents which took place while I was absent on holiday, I should mention one item that has featured heavily in Thai news reports - the plot to assassinate the caretaker prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra.

Assassination plot or hoax?

On Thursday, August 24, a general in the Royal Thai Army was sacked following allegations that his personal driver had been found in possession of an explosive device, which was said to have been intended to kill Thaksin. Lieutenant Thawatchai Klinchana, an officer with the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC), was arrested early in the morning, and later that day General Panlop Pinmanee, deputy director of ISOC was dismissed from his post.

The following day, as rumours spread that the bomb incident was a hoax set up by the government and Thaksin's party, the Thai Rak Thai, the caretaker prime minister (who had stepped down on April 4 after allegations of corruption) made a statement. Thaksin said that four military officers had been involved in the assassination plot.

However, many people refused to believe the claims, according to a poll published in yesterday's Bangkok Post, which had been conducted by Bangkok University. 49.8% of those polled, who came from Bangkok and its environs, claimed the plot was a hoax. 60.8% of these were convinced the government had engineered the event, and 20% thought that anti-government elements were behind the plot. Only 20.5% thought the plot had been real. 47.5% or respondents thought the TRT party would not lose popularity, and 25.5% thought the insident would affect TRT.

Inside a Daewoo car were found explosives, and according to Pol Lt-Col Kamthorn Ouicharoen, a 38-year-old officer of the Metropolitan Police Bureau's bomb disposal unit, the bomb was constructed by a professional. 67 kilograms of TNT was the explosive in the device, which would have caused damage over a 50 meter radius. However, army specialist Maj-Gen Khatiya Sawasdipol said he thought it was a plot by police to deceive people. He said wires in the detonating circuit were not connected correctly, and the bomb would not have gone off. The car was parked about a mile from Thaksin's house.

Yesterday, a 13-minute video of the suspect, Lieutenant Thawatchai Klinchana, was released by police. This was a message made after his arrest, in which the lieutenant said that he took full responsibility for the proposed attack, and even apologised to the public and Thaksin Shinawatra. Today, a military court refused the suspect bail.

The Insurgency

On Tuesday August 15, journalists were told by Gen. Adul Saengsingkaew, COmmissioner of the Provincial Police, Region 9, that the authorities were aware of insurgent plots. He said: "We believe that the insurgents active in the three troubled southernmost provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani will immediately stir the new spate of unrest once state security forces are apparently weak."

The following day, an elderly man was killed in Yala town, Yala province. 74-year old Thuan Intaratana was hit twice by bullets from a .38mm pistol as he rode his motorcycle to downtown Yala to attend a meeting of cooperative store owners. He was pursued by gunmen on another motorcycle, and received two gunshots to his torso.

On Thursday, August 17, 19 people were wounded in two separate bombing incidents. Around 7 am in Rangae district in Narathiwat province, a motorcycle bomb went off, wounding five soldiers and seven civilians. A young girl was among the injured.

An hour later, a bomb went off in a restaurant in Yala province, opposite the Yala State Hospital. Two policemen and five other people were injured, including hospital staff.

In both incidents, police recovered nails which had been part of the devices, and fragments of mobile phones, which were used to detonate the bombs.

On the same day in Pattani province, there were two fatal shooting incidents. Around 8 am in Nong Chik district, 31-year old Ma Matahe, a government informant, was shot dead as he rode home in his motorcycle. His assailants were two gunmen.

In the town of Sai Buri, Sai Buri district in Narathiwat, a 47-government employee was also shot dead by motorcycle gunmen. Bunchoo Longphrom was riding to work on his motorcycle.

On Friday August 18, a woman civil servant was wounded in Yala province. 24-year old Nongyao Tiyaworaphan was an employee of the Mae Wad subdistrict administration. She was attacked as she rode her motorcycle to work. She was hit four times by gunshot from unidentified assailants, and rushed to hospital.

On Saturday August 19, a village headman was shot dead by two unidentified gunmen on a motorcycle in Yala province. 55-year old Suding Wahmae Disah was riding his motorcycle from Raman district to his home when he was shot once in the head and twice in the back. He died instantly.

On Sunday August 20, one person was killed and another injured after four insurgents on motorcycles fired AK47 rifles at a Irrigation Department-owned vehicle carrying eight workers. The incident happened in Yaring district in Pattani province. 56-year old Kade Nibong was killed, and 46-year old Roya Jehwae was taken to Pattani hospital.

On Monday August 21, according to Reuters, the insurgents focused their attention back on their former targets, Buddhists. A few days before one attack in Yala province, the insurgents had distributed leaflets, ordering Buddhists to leave the area.

The attack took place on Buddhist civilians as they loaded a truck with durian fruit, which they had purchased from a mainly Muslim village. Three Buddhist men were shot dead by gunmen riding motorcycles. The incident took place 300 meters away from an army outpost.

In Narathiwat province on the same day, three women, one Muslim and two Buddhist were all riding the same motorcycle, on their way home from visiting a market, when they were all shot and wounded. A police spokesman said: "Muslim villagers took the Muslim woman to hospital, but the Buddhist mother and daughter had to wait until police arrived because they were afraid of being seen as helping the government."

On Wednesday August 23, a Muslim schoolteacher was shot dead as he rode his motorcycle to the Islamic school (tadika) where he worked in Narathiwat province. 35-year old Ayi Mamu was shot several times by four people in a pickup truck, who fled the scene. Mr Ayi was taken to a local hospital, where he died.

On Friday August 25, a 34-year old man was shot dead in his pickup truck in Bannang Sata district of Yala province. The victim was named as Montree Buddikerd. He had been shot several times as he returned home from work.

On Saturday August 26 in Khok Pho district, Pattani province, a roadside bomb was detonated by mobile phone as a police patrol passed by. 47-year old Pol Sen Sgt-Maj Visai Narangkul suffered minor injuries in the blast. A civilian bystander, 30-year old shoe vendor Veerasak Paladsama, was also injured by the bomb, which was triggered by mobile phone.

Also on Saturday in Bannang Sata district of Yala province, a home-made bomb killed two army officials. Col Suthisak Prasertsri, 1st special task force chief, and one of his subordinates were killed as they returned from a "merit-making" trip in Than To district. The colonel's coffin is shown left, at Ubon Ratchathani airport, being brought home for burial. Five other army personnel were critically injured in the attack.

Rumours of fresh attacks by insurgents from the Bersatu separatist movement have brought trade in the Narathiwat provinces of Sungai Kolok and Tak Bai to a standstill.

The districts rely upon visitors from other districts, and even from Malaysians crossing the border, but visitors have stopped coming since the rumours emerged.

Yesterday, a unit hunting for the killers of Col Sutthisak Prasertsri, 1st special task force chief and one of his men conducted a raid in Bannang Sata district, Yala, and uncovered a factory for producing spikes. These spikes are often used to spread over roads when an insurgent attack takes place, to hinder access from security vehicles. Gun polish and spare gun parts were also recovered from a nearby cave.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 5:17 PM | Comments (0)

August 26, 2006

Opinion: Islam's Brutalization of Baha'is in Iran

Iranian writer Amil Imani examines the reasons for the Islamic persecution of the Baha'i.

Islam, the "religion of peace," is anything but peaceful, particularly when it comes to other religions. To the oppressive Islam, there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his Prophet-the seal of the prophets at that. Grudgingly, Islam barely tolerates people of the book-namely Jews and Christians-but no other faith is entitled to any fair treatment. In Iran, the force-imposed Islam finds it expedient to extend its limited tolerance to the original religion of the indigenous people-the Zoroastrians.

The terrible plight of the Baha'is in Iran is particularly heart-wrenching, since they are the largest non-Muslims in the country and have, from day one, been severely brutalized by Muslims. The Baha'i Faith dates back to the middle of the 19th century when an Iranian nobleman, Baha'u'llah, founded the new faith as an independent religion-a very painful thorn in the side of a ruling vested clergy with a stranglehold on the masses.

The slaveholder, Islam, finds the Baha'i Faith a threat to its very existence, since many of the Baha'i teachings are anathema to that of Islamofascism-the favorite version of Islam. Below is a brief list that contrasts some of the two beliefs. Beliefs are impetus to action and when beliefs clash, people clash.

* The chosen people. Muslims believe that they are the chosen people of God and recognize no other system of belief as legitimate. Baha'is believe that all people are the chosen people of God-that there is only one God, one religion of God, and one people of God, the entire human race.

* Progressive Revelation. Muslims contend that Muhammad is the seal of the Prophets, that God sent his best and final messenger to mankind, and any other claimant is an imposter worthy of death. Baha’is believe that God has always sent his emissaries to educate humanity and shall do so in the future. They believe that Baha'u'llah is the latest in that line of prophets.

* Independent thinking. Blind imitation and obedience to any authority is anathema to Baha'is. Baha'is believe that the human mind and the gift of reason should guide the person in making decisions about all matters. To this end, they place a premium on education and independent investigation of truth. Baha'is consider the education of women as important as that of men, since women are the early teachers of children and can play their valuable part by being themselves educated. By contrast, Muslims look for to religious authorities for guidance and often deprive women of education and independent thinking.

In recognition of the importance of independent thinking, no one is born Baha'i. Once one is born to a Muslim, he is considered Muslim for life. If he decides to leave Islam, he is labeled apostate and, apostates are automatically condemned to death. The slaveholders are intent on keeping all their slaves as well as their issues. By contrast, every child born in a Baha’i family is required to make his own independent decision regarding whether or not he wishes to be a Baha'i. Freedom to choose and independent thinking are cherished values of the Baha’is, in stark contrast to that of Muslims.

* Harmony of religion and science. Baha'is believe that truth transcends all boundaries. Scientific and religious truth emanates from the same universal source. They are like the two sides of the same coin. To Baha'is, science and religion are as two wings of a bird that enable human flight toward the summit of its potential; that any religious belief that contradicts science is superstition. Muslims believe that their religious dogma, irrespective of its proven falsehood, is superior to that of science. The Muslims literally believe, for instance, that Muhammad unsheathed his sword and split the moon in half and many, many more scientifically-untenable views.

* Equality of men and women. Muslims hold the view, expressly stated in the Quran, that men are rulers over women. Baha'is fully reject this notion and subscribe to the unconditional equality of the two sexes. This Baha'i principle emancipates one half of humanity from the status of subservient domestic to that of a fully participating and self-actualized human. It undermines the heartless exploitation of women and demands that women be treated with all due respect under the law.

* Participatory decision-making. Islam, by its very nature, is patriarchal and authoritarian. Baha'is believe in the value of decision making through the practice of consultation-a process where everyone, irrespective of any and all considerations-has a voice in making decisions. This participatory decision-making principle abrogates a major prerogative of Islamic mullahs who have been the great beneficiaries of dictating matters to their liking and advantage. Also, at all levels of society, including the family, all affected members have the opportunity, even the responsibility, to make their views known without fear. Baha'i teachings clearly emphasize this commitment to a democratic decision-making in their scripture, "The shining spark of truth cometh forth only after the clash of differing opinions."

* World-embracing outlook. Baha'is love their native countries, yet extend that same love to the entire planet and its people. Baha'is believe that love has no limit and need not have limits. One can love his country and love the world at the same time. This love of the world is frequently used as a pretense by the Islamofascists to accuse the Baha'is of Iran as traitors to their own homeland. It is for this reason that the present mullahs ruling of Iran falsely claim that the Baha'is are agents of the Zionist Israel and its American sponsor.

* Eradication of prejudice. Prejudice of any type is alien to the Baha'i Faith and severely undermines its pivotal principle of the oneness of humanity. Muslims are notorious when it comes to prejudice. Prejudice against others is thoroughly exploited by the Islamofascist. In contrast, Baha'i scriptures say, "...again, as to religious, racial, national and political bias: all these prejudices strike at the very root of human life; one and all they beget bloodshed, and the ruination of the world. So long as these prejudices survive, there will be continuous and fearsome wars."

The above is a short treatment of some of the salient features of the two belief systems-one dating back some fourteen centuries and one of relatively recent origin. It is understandable that the intolerant defunct fascist Islam sees its death in a competing ideology vastly at odds with its barbaric tenets.

It is of further interest that the same land, Iran, which gave the world the magnificent religion of Zoroaster, once again has given birth to another religion of humanistic values.

We do not promote religion here. Yet, we feel that there are many religions practiced throughout the world, with beliefs and practices that are, by far, more human and humane than Islam.

We also feel for our long-suffering Baha'i compatriots in Iran. They have been savagely brutalized for over a century and a half through the demonic machinations of the despicable mullahs. They continue to pay dearly for their audacity to believe in human dignity. It is the duty of all free and enlightened humans to confront Islamofascism-the deathly ideology that is once again on a rampage; an ideology that is creeping out of its traditional zone of terror to the rest of the world; an ideology that holds the promise of destroying, in its path, all that is dear to enlightened humanity.

Source: Islam Watch

Posted by Guest at 11:38 AM | Comments (2)

August 25, 2006

Yemen: Deaths Occur After Pre-Election Clash

When the world-wide Caliphate is established, and Islam rules over the last corner of the earth, Muslims believe, peace will be attained. Color me skeptical: Three die as Yemen parties clash

Three people have been killed in Yemen in clashes between supporters of the governing General People's Congress and the Islamist opposition group, Islah.

The incident happened in al-Jawf province, 70km (45 miles) north of the capital, Sanaa.

The clash followed an argument over the two sides' campaigns for upcoming local elections.[...]

Posted by Ruy Diaz at 1:38 PM | Comments (0)

US: The Beliefs of a Presbyterian "Mission Worker"

Usually, I will excerpt articles, but there is no easy way to excerpt Solomon's piece. Let's just say Reverend Nuhad Tomeh doesn't come out too well: PC(USA) Reverend Still Doing Hizballah's Work

Note: When I first thought of a title for this piece, I thought of writing "US: The Beliefs of a Presbiterian Missionary", but that wouldn't be right: Reverend Tomeh, despite his tireless service to Hezbollah, cannot bring the gospel--whatever of it he understands--to the Muslim masses. Because it is, after all, a Muslim country, and if he were to do that, not an infinite number of anti-Israel pieces would save his skin.

Posted by Ruy Diaz at 12:42 PM | Comments (2)

US: Better Dead than Red... by Blushing

His lawyers say he said "pump" and the airport screener understood "bomb." The odd thing is, I believe him. I can almost see him, looking at the ground, saying "pump" between the teeth. If you have an accent, it is quite easy to be misunderstood. (I can relate.) I can also sympathize with his embarrasment; it is just that there are moments when you have to rise up to the occassion and take it, (the embarrassment), like a man: Man Charged After Telling Chicago Airport Security His Penis Pump Was a Bomb

CHICAGO - Prosecutors say a 29-year-old man traveling with his mother desperately did not want her to know he had packed a sexual aid for their trip to Turkey.

So he told security it was a bomb, officials said.

Madin Azad Amin was stopped by officials on Aug. 16 after guards found an object in his baggage that resembled a grenade, prosecutors said.

When officers asked him to identify it, Amin said it was a bomb, said Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Lorraine Scaduto.

He later told officials he lied about the item because his mother was nearby and he did not want her to hear that it was part of a penis pump, Scaduto said.[...]

Posted by Ruy Diaz at 5:43 AM | Comments (0)

August 24, 2006

Saudi Arabia: The Muttawa Enforces Ban on Pet Dogs and Cats

As the compilation of Sahih Muslim relates:

Book 002, Number 0551:

Ibn Mughaffal reported: The Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) ordered killing of the dogs, and then said: What about them, i. e. about other dogs? and then granted concession (to keep) the dog for hunting and the dog for (the security) of the herd, and said: When the dog licks the utensil, wash it seven times, and rub it with earth the eighth time.

Three things annul prayer; a dog, a donkey, and a woman:

Volume 1, Book 9, Number 490:

Narrated 'Aisha:

The things which annul the prayers were mentioned before me. They said, "Prayer is annulled by a dog, a donkey and a woman (if they pass in front of the praying people)." I said, "You have made us (i.e. women) dogs. I saw the Prophet praying while I used to lie in my bed between him and the Qibla. Whenever I was in need of something, I would slip away. for I disliked to face him."

What I don't understand is: why the cats too?

Here is the story: Authorities In Saudi Arabia Ban Sale Of Pet Cats And Dogs

Authorities in the Saudi city of Mecca have banned the sale of pet cats and dogs at the request of religious police, the Arab News reported Thursday.

The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice made the request after many young Saudis had gone outdoors with their pet dogs thus violating the kingdom's culture and traditions.

Authorities in the city of Jeddah have also begun enforcing the decision, the report said.[...]

Posted by Ruy Diaz at 1:56 PM | Comments (1)

Malaysia: Lina Joy Update--Church Reported for Illegal Baptism

According to Sharia, or Islamic Law, the penalty for apostasy is death. Indonesia should decide whether the individual rights of its citizens are more valuable than the prescriptions of its official religion. As Malaysia's Islamic majority increases due to a higher birth rate for Muslims, the outcome of the case may not matter much in the end: Church that baptised Lina Joy, convert from Islam, is reported

Kuala Lumpur (AsiaNews) - Malaysia's Federal Court has said it intends to take its time before passing sentence in the appeal of Lina Joy because the issue is "sensitive and needs careful examination." Lina Joy's appeal to have her conversion to Christianity officially recognized has been in the Federal Court for months. Meanwhile, pressure by Islamic extremists is intensifying daily: they are intent on preventing a positive outcome of the case that may pave the way for a "flight from Islam" by other believers. Recently, for example, the parish where Lina Joy was baptized learned it has a police record.

The parishioners of Our Lady of Fatima, Brickfields, where Joy was baptized, were informed about a police report against their parish. According to the Harakah fortnightly paper dated August 16-31, a man called Taib Hisham reported the church, claiming that Joy's baptism went against Article 11 of the Constitution that says: "The law may control or restrict the propagation of any religious doctrine or belief among persons professing the religion of Islam." Taib was supported in his initiative by the youth wing of the Islamic Party of Malaysia (known as PAS) and Islamic NGOs. Article 11 also guarantees religious freedom.[...]

Posted by Ruy Diaz at 9:48 AM | Comments (3)

August 23, 2006

Analysis: Transcript of Journalist Kidnappers

Here is what I see in the Transcript of Kidnappers's Statement:

"Praise be to God, Lord of the universe, who helps those who - being weak - are ill-treated (and oppressed). He gives power to the faithful and disgrace to the infidels. Prayer and peace be upon the Messenger of compassion for all mankind, the leader of the Mujahideen, the best of all people who carried the flag of the struggle until he died. May God bless the souls of the Prophet's companions and family members, and those who follow in their footsteps with goodness until the day of judgment.

It is always useful to claim victim status, especially if you are committing a henious crime. Praying for the souls of the faithful, beginning with Muhammad's companions, is a common Islamic practice.

God Almighty says: "...those who fight for the sake of God..." so the Messenger of God heeled to this call and accepted the reward and God's promise. Paradise was his reward. God Almighty says: "God hath purchased of the believers their persons and their goods; for theirs (in return) is the garden (of Paradise)". The people sell and the buyer [God] is one that rewards with a prize greater in value than that which is being sold. So people got up and started to compete [to get this prize], the smell of Paradise. Congratulations to those who wanted all the glory and sacrificed themselves to go to heaven (Illegible).

Two paragraphs in, and they are still of "smelling the smell of paradise." One of Muhammad's curses was to claim that this or that group of people "would not know the smell of paradise."

At a time when all the forces of evil gathered to fight against Islam and defeat the will of Muslims, using their leaders who raced to satisfy their masters with all the power, arguments and intelligence they have, as if this was their own fight. "I but point out to you that which I see (myself); Nor do I guide you but to the Path of Righteousness!" [Quran]. They came with their horses and their men and invaded the land of Islam in unjust wars in which they had no proof or evidence, but to follow their desire. They brought down a regime that won't go down in Afghanistan, then gathered to bring down a tyrant and occupied Iraq, but Iraq won't be occupied. "Satan made their (sinful) acts seem alluring to them, and said: "No one among men can overcome you this day...". Before that, Palestine was sold by people who did not own it to those who did not deserve it ... (Illegible)

The rethoric is similar to bin Laden's; bin Laden, it should be remembered, gave his blessing to fighting against the United States, even if it would benefit "the Socialists" (Saddam's Baath regime.) The admiration the writer feels for the Taliban (even they likely don't belong to the same Islamic school of Jurisprudence, not always a small matter), is palpable.

And to add to the bitterness, they placed infidel regimes they called "Democratic" regimes that want to bring us justice and freedom. So some ran [to embrace such regimes] while they knew by heart "(Illegible)".

Supporting the present regimes in Iraq or Afghanistan, therefore, is tresonous.

God is the only legislator. He is the final Judge in all matters. Like parrots, they all started to shout "Democracy, freedom, elections, referendum". They did not know — or maybe they did but neglected to do what they were supposed to under the pretext that this was not happening on their own soils — that they were only praising states of mental illnesses through which the West went through in its intellectual and ideological struggle to achieve the heavenly justice, and they [Westerners] did away with the causes of their backwardness to prosper, so you can obey them and they can play God. "Fie upon you, and upon the things that ye worship".

"Worshiping" (e.i., imitating) the West, is deserving of hellfire.

Dear people, God sent us to bring the people out of worshiping people to worshiping the Lord of the people, to take them from the injustice of religions, to the justice of Islam. We invite you and ask you, just like the Prophet of Compassion did, to "Embrace Islam, and you will be saved", otherwise, you will be responsible for your sin and that of (Illegible).

Do not imitate the West; or else Allah will punish you.

This is a message to all infidels, without any distinction of geographical location or origin. This is a call to enter in the religion of God, before the day where "no good will it do to a soul to believe if it believed not before".

As has been noticed by other commentators, it is traditional in Islam to invitate the "infidels" to accept Islam before waging war on them. The writer addresses his missive to "all infidels, without any distinction...."

No one should disregard this message (Illegible). God's soldiers are led to victory only with the help of God. No one can frighten us with what the enemy possesses. By the name of God, who raised the heavens and though Adam the nature of all things, if they throw us in fire, it would be cool and a means of safety for us, and if they throw us in water, the whale would swallow us and take us to land, and if they want to cut us up, God will ransom us with a great sacrificial lamb.

They all got together around this scheme and lined up as one, but the nation who says: "Fear not, because God is on our side", will never be defeated.

This is what we in the West would call millenarian thinking; God will deliver victory, no matter what.

So to all you leaders of the infidels and masters of injustice and tyranny, "Embrace Islam and you will be saved, or else, enjoy yourselves until your turn comes to be slaughtered.

The writer is enjoying the vision of all the "leaders of the infidels" being slaughtered. This reminds me, for some reason, of Thomas Muntzer enjoying a vision of Martin Luther being fried and eaten by the devil. "I would love to smell your carcass", Muntzer wrote.

You have angered us, and we are not the kind that is subdued when they are angered, but rather the fountains of Islam and the light of faith spring through us. "It is not fitting for an apostle that he should have prisoners of war until he hath thoroughly subdued the land.", "then bind a bond firmly (on them): thereafter (is the time for) either generosity or ransom: Until the war lays down its burdens."

Those are indeed the words of Muhammad, and the basis of Islamic law with respect to prisoners of war. It is especially worrisome that they mention it is not fit to have prisoners of war until the land has been subdued. That might be used as a justification for murdering the hostages. The second quote is Koran 47:4.

This is the chance we give you, and God only knows if this chance will come to you again. We demand the release of the Muslim prisoners, males and females in the prisons of America, in exchange of our prisoners.

A literal reading of the demand would say they want, all Muslim prisoners out; GITMO detainees, common criminals, it's all the same. It is interesting they mention "males and females"; they probably believe the United States kidnaps females to keep as sex slaves. Islamic law allows the practice for Muslims.

Release our prisoners and we will do the same. This applies to all without exception. And every Muslim is more cherished and more generous than a thousand Bush. But this is a tradeoff of equals.

We will give you 72 hours starting noon today to look into this, and if you meet our demands, we will deliver on our promise, otherwise, wait and see, and we will wait with you until the order comes from God "And God hath full power and control over His affairs; but most among mankind know it not.", "And soon will the unjust assailants know what vicissitudes their affairs will take!"

The time you have starts as of noon Wednesday the 29th of Rajab (the Islamic month) of the year 1447. (Muslim year) which is the 23rd of August 2006.

The last of our prayers is "Praise be to God, Lords of the worlds!"

The Holy Jihad Brigades"

Posted by Ruy Diaz at 7:48 PM | Comments (1)

Islamic Palestine: Group Demands Release of U.S. Muslim Prisoners for Kidnapped Journalists

Islam, Religion of Journalist-kidnapping and unrealistic demands: Palestinian Group Claims Kidnapping of Journalists

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Video footage of two kidnapped FOX News journalists was released by a previously unheard of Palestinian group Wednesday along with a statement demanding the release of Muslim prisoners in U.S. jails within 72 hours in exchange for the men.

In the video, American correspondent Steve Centanni, 60, and cameraman Olaf Wiig, 36, of New Zealand, made statements about their condition and appealed for help in winning their release.

The footage, first released in Gaza to the Arab TV station Al Jazeera via the Palestinian news agency Ramattan, was the first sign of the journalists since they were kidnapped Aug. 14 from their news van in Gaza City.

The statement issued by the Holy Jihad Brigades - the first by a Palestinian group in Gaza that made demands on a foreign country other than Israel - demanded the release of Muslim prisoners in U.S. jails be released within three days in exchange for Centanni and Wiig. The group did not say what would happen if the deadline passed unanswered.[...]

Fox News also has a transcript of the kidnappers's statement: Against the Infidels.

I'll offer my interpretation of the statement later today.

Posted by Ruy Diaz at 2:41 PM | Comments (0)

Germany: Germans Surprised to be Target of Terror

An Associated Press report contains the following gem (boldened-out):

BERLIN - A Lebanese student suspected of planting a train bomb that failed to explode had contacts in Hamburg, authorities said Tuesday, the latest link to the northern port city where three of the Sept. 11 suicide pilots prepared for their attacks.

The planned attack here stunned Germans who thought the country's vehement opposition to the
Iraq war would insulate it from becoming a terror target almost five years after the attacks on Washington and New York.

The Germans's surprise comes from viewing the war through Western eyes: they assume the Jihadis wage war for specific, limited goals. Things such as "America out of Iraq", or "give the Palestinians their own State". The Jihadis, on the other hand, have much grander goals; the humilliation and conquest of the West, the civilization they so despise.

Hat tip: LGF

Posted by Ruy Diaz at 10:46 AM | Comments (0)

August 22, 2006

Commentary: For Israel, Victory was Impossible

It is a miracle, hallelujah! What was once thought impossible has happened; pundits both of the left and of the right agree on something--that Israel lost the Lebanon war. They point out that after the war "Hezbollah is stronger" (by which they mean it is more popular in the Muslim world and better financed than before the war.) They also point out that Israel was unable to stop terrorist attacks which rained in its cities via modified Katyusha rockets. By being unable to achieve its main military objective and by showing weaknesses in its defensive strategy, they argue, Israel lost the war.

Let's not quibble over details; how many fighters Hezbollah lost, how popular it will really be after the euphoria dies down, things we can't either know now or may never know. Let's ask instead: under the present political realities, was it ever possible for Israel to achieve its military objectives?

In a word: no. Israel could have never seriously weakened Hezbollah unless Hezbollah decided to fight an open war, and why would they: all the warriors of the self-proclaimed Party of God had to do to win was to survive. Once the inevitable cease-fire came, they could come out of hiding and celebrate victory, regardless of the body count. Even if its terrorist warriors were killed in large numbers, new servants of Allah could be found, indoctrinated and trained, the money helpfully provided by the Islamic Republic of Iran.

And neither was Israel in a position to stop the terror-by-rocket strategy. There is nothing original, mind you, about the strategy: North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il terrorizes South Korea with his 10,000 pieces of artillery able to bring death and destruction to Seoul. But the effectiveness of the strategy lies in its simplicity; if your target is large enough--a city full of civilians, say--almost any cheap guidance system will do the job.

Unlike South Korea, which could retaliate by defeating the North Korean Army in the battlefield and destroying the North Korean state, Israel had absolutely no options to stop the rocket attacks. They could not have invaded Lebanon with overwhelming force--not even the United States would have supported that. And even if the United States had supported them there was simply no nation-state to destroy, but a terrorist polity able to spring back into life once Israel withdrew.

And so, what should Israel do now? Israel should realize it is unable, by itself, to win such wars. What Israel should not do is entertain fantasies of negotiating itself out of its problems since there is no point in negotiating with those whose purpose in life is to destroy you. Israel should fight wars that buy it time, and wait for the West to destroy Islamic terrorism and the ideology that sustains it, Islam.

Because, yes, dear reader, it is up to us to destroy the Islamic enemy, for better or for worse.

Posted by Ruy Diaz at 5:50 PM | Comments (3)

India: Muslim Opposition to 'Vande Mataram' Continues

Councils of Ulema (Islamic Scholars) continue to voice their opposition to the recitation of Vande Mataram, India's national song, on the grounds that it constitutes idolatry, because it speaks of India as a 'sacred mother.' It seems these scholars are not familiar with poetic techniques such as personification, in which, for example, calling the land of India sacred does not necessarily imply believing in the sacredness of India. More likely, however, the Ulemas do understand personification, but believe that it is idolatry nonetheless, because in Islam anything that might possibly lead to idolatry is Haram (forbidden.) (And it should also be noticed; Muhammad, the inventor of Islam, hated poets and poetry.)

Here one of the latest developments: UP Muslims to oppose Vande Mataram in schools

A section of Muslims in Uttar Pradesh are in no mood to abide by a government directive that 'Vande Mataram' be recited in all educational institutions on September 7, claiming that the national song is 'anti-Islamic'.

"We consider recitation of 'Vande Mataram' by Muslim students as un-Islamic and I have no hesitation in advising members of our community to shun it," said prominent Islamic cleric Maulana Khalid Rasheed, who heads one of India's leading Islamic institutions, popularly known as Firangi Mahal.

Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh had written to all Chief Ministers to ensure that the first two stanzas of the song are recited in all educational institutions across the country on September 7 - the day marking the culmination of year-long centenary celebrations of the song.[...]

But not all Muslims are obeying the directives of the Islamic councils; a patriotic Muslim boy has just ended an eight-day fast in protest of the decision: muslim youth fasts against fatwa

Agra: A Muslim youth ended his eight-day fast to protest a fatwa (religious ruling) against the singing of India's national song Vande Mataram in schools.

The fatwa was issued by Sunni Ulema Board president Maulana Syed Shah Badruddin Qadri in Hyderabad.[...]

In Islam, it should be noted, patriotism--love for one's country--is also Haram. Muslim ought to owe their alliance to Allah, Muhammad, and the Ummah; the community of believers. Infidel countries such as India should be absorbed into a world-wide Islamic Caliphate.

Posted by Ruy Diaz at 12:59 PM | Comments (1)

Iran: Islamic Regime Refuses to Suspend Uranium Enrichment

My question before the West, and especially before the United States is this: did anybody expect the "package of incentives" (you know, the invitation to be blackmailed) to succeed? I mean, really, did anybody expect Iran's response to be different? Western nations pursue diplomacy like a sacred ritual; it is performed to appease the gods of peace--"but we are pursuing diplomacy!", they say--not because they expect specific, concrete results to come out of it: Iran responds to nuclear package

Iran has delivered its formal response to the demand by world powers that it suspend uranium enrichment in exchange for a package of incentives.

Iranian TV said the response was handed over in Tehran to diplomats from the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany.

The details were not immediately released, but Iran made clear on Monday that it would reject global pressure.

Supreme leader Ali Khamenei said Tehran would continue its nuclear activities.

The incentives on offer include help with civilian nuclear technology.

The package was devised amid fears that Iran is trying to develop a nuclear weapons programme - a claim that Iran denies.[...]

Posted by Ruy Diaz at 10:14 AM | Comments (0)

August 21, 2006

Somalia: Islamic Courts Grab More Power

This is not about charcoal or "deforestation"; it is about destroying consensual power and placing dictatorial, absolutist Islam in its place: Islamic courts ban exporting charcoal and cutting plants

The council of Islamic Courts (CIC) controlling Somalia capital Mogadishu and other key parts in central and southern of the country has nullified on Sunday 4.5 formula in which Somali tribes shared the power. It originally initiated from the former transitional national government formed in Djibouti in 2000 and the current transitional federal government itself follow the same practice.

The head of information department of the Islamic Courts, Sheikh Abdirahin Mudey has today held a news conference in Mogadishu addressing two major issues 'defending the religion and the nation' and total banning on deforestation of the environment in Somalia.

If you apply a 'total ban on deforestation', how are Somalis going to cook?

He has talked a lot about the problems among Somalis during the civil war era and the best solution to that was to practice the Islamic religion and the justice is in the Islam. "After 16 years of difficulties, Somali people received back their comprehension and it is needed that Somalis should reconcile over their inner conflict and also stick to their religion of Islam," he said.[...]

And if you don't stick to the religion of Islam, of course, Islam will use the stick on you.

Posted by Ruy Diaz at 7:50 PM | Comments (3)

Iraq: Pope Calls for Release of Priest Kidnapped by Jihadis

Islam, Religion of Priest-Kidnapping: Pope appeals for release of priest kidnapped in Baghdad

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI appealed for the release of a Chaldean Catholic priest who was kidnapped in Baghdad, Iraq, just after celebrating Mass Aug. 15 for the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

"His Holiness makes a heartfelt appeal to the abductors to release the young priest at once so that he can return to the service of God, the Christian community and his countrymen," said a message sent by Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Vatican secretary of state, to Chaldean Patriarch Emmanuel-Karim Delly of Baghdad.

Masked kidnappers forced Father Saad Sirop Hanna, 34, to stop his car, then they took him away, Vatican Radio reported Aug. 18. Father Hanna works at St. Jacob Parish in Dora, one of Baghdad's most dangerous neighborhoods.

Father Philip Najim, the Rome-based representative of the Chaldean Catholic Patriarchate of Baghdad, confirmed the report.[...]

Posted by Ruy Diaz at 1:32 PM | Comments (0)

Opinion: Calls for "Proportionate Response" are not Themselves Proportionate

Alamgir Hussain of Islam Watch,discusses the true nature of the calls for Israel to restrain itself to a "proportionate response." That particularly vicious canard is part of the larger ideology which seeks to establish "perpetual peace" by punishing countries morally tainted--that is, Western countries such as Israel--to the benefit of the "poor, and oppressed peoples of the world", which in its worldview cannot help but lash out at their oppression. Oddly enough, those "poor, oppressed people" are not usually poor, but usually followers of the mass-murdering warlord Muhammad: Proportionate Response - Kofi Annan's Jihadi Formula for Israel's Destruction

Hezbollah's provocative cross-border attack of an Israeli military outpost killing three soldiers and abducting two others was responded by Israel with extensive bombings of Lebanon. Israel claimed the bombing was targeted at Hezbollah guerrillas and their military infrastructures, including its strategic guerrilla outposts, rocket launchers, underground bunkers and weapon warehouses. As Hezbollah operates from amongst the civilian areas, Israel's massive bombing naturally resulted in nearly 700-800 civilian deaths, according to Lebanese claim whilst Israel claimed to have killed about 530 Hezbollah militants.

These civilian deaths raised a deafening outcry in the media and Israel was severely condemned by foreign governments and numerous international organizations with the UN and Human Rights groups taking the lead. UN secretary general Kofi Annan demanded that 'Israel's disproportionate use of force and collective punishment of the Lebanese people must stop.' [1]. He claimed that Israel has "committed grave breaches of international humanitarian law" and "has caused, and is causing, death and suffering on a wholly unacceptable scale." All major UN officials [1], France and Russia [2], European Union and a whole host of human rights organizations joined voice with Mr. Annan to condemn Israel's allegedly excessive force. Mr. Annan further claimed Israel's bombing was deliberate targeting of non-military personnel and infrastructures such as airports [3] and urged the UNSC to condemn the Israeli response [4]. Human rights groups, too, termed Israel's Lebanon bombing 'indiscriminate' [5] and deliberately targeted civilians [6] and went on to threaten Israel to bring to criminal court for war crime [7].[...]

Posted by Ruy Diaz at 12:33 PM | Comments (0)

Russia: Explosion in Moscow Market, Terrorism Likely

Call me cynical, but this bears the marks of the Religion of Peace: Ten dead in Moscow market blast

An explosion has killed 10 people - including at least two children - at a Moscow market, Russian officials say.

At least 16 other people were injured in the blast at 1030 (0630GMT) at the eastern Cherkizovsky market. It brought down a two-storey building.

There are conflicting reports about the cause of the explosion.

According to Moscow's First Deputy Mayor Vladimir Resin, a "makeshift explosive device" blew up. Earlier police blamed a faulty gas cylinder.

Latest reports from Moscow police say a bomb had been hidden in a bag and left in a cafe.[...]

Russia's pro-Islam, anti-America foreign policy can't buy internal peace, for Jihad is eternal....

Posted by Ruy Diaz at 5:45 AM | Comments (0)

August 20, 2006

Germany: Lebanese Muslim Detained In Bomb Probe

We wrote on August 4 that two bombs were discovered on separate trains on Monday July 31 near Dortmund and Koblenz in Germany. The bomb on the Dortmund-bound train was defused after its discovery at the station platform, and it contained a canister of propane gas, timers, soft drinks bottles filled with an inflammable liquid and wires hidden inside a luggage bag. The bomb on the Koblenz-bound train was of a similar composition, and was similarly dismantled.

Prosecutor Ina Holznagel had stated of one of the bombs: "The contents were capable of severely injuring or even killing people"

According to the newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung, one of the bombs had contained a plastic bag printed with an Arabic script and a Beirut address. Now it is known that inside the Koblenz bomb, there was a note in Arabic with a Lebanese phone number. Also packets of starch inside the case bore Arabic and English labels. Yesterday, according to Reuters via Topix.net and AFP via Turkish Press and Yahoo a man was detained in connection with the devices. A second suspect is still at large.

The man apprehended was a 21-year old Lebanese Muslim, identified only as Yussef Mohammed E.H. He was arrested in a raid on the railway station at Kiel, where he tried to flee. He had been a student in the city.

His fingerprints and DNA had been identified from one of the suitcases containing the bombs, stated the federal prosecutor's office. He was transported by helicopter to Karlsruhe. The federal prosecuting officers there stated that the bombs, which had been timed to detonate at 2.30pm, 10 minutes before the respective stations, had failed to detonate because of a "technical error". If they had been detonated, they would caused "balls of fire".

He was placed in custody, charged with "attempted murder, belonging to a terrorist organisation and attempting to cause an explosion."

Today, it was revealed that a search has been made of the Kiel student dormitory where the man resided, but had found no explosives.

On Friday, before the suspect was arrested, Rainer Griesbaum, a federal prosecutor, had told the press: "We are now working on the basis that this was the work of a terrorist group based in Germany and that it was an attempt to kill a large number of people."

Late on Saturday, Germany's Interior Minister, Wolfgang Schaebule said on TV that the security situation in the country was "exceptionally serious". He said: "The threat has never been so close. We do not know what could still happen."

According to the newspaper Bild am Sonntag, the student had recently been to Lebanon when his brother had been killed in an air raid attack. One student has said he was "polite and friendly" and another had "very often spoken about religion."

He was captured after being recognised from closed circuit television pictures, which had been circulated in the German media. He was shown with another man while they had been in Cologne station.

There is currently a reward of 50,000 Euros ($64,000) for information which leads to the arrest of the men who planted the bombs.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 5:31 PM | Comments (0)

Israel: Hezbollah's Night Vision Equipment Came from Britain

This brings up an important topic: why in God's name are we selling advanced military equipment to our enemies? The United States sells M1A1 Abrams tanks to Saudi Arabia, for example: Hezbollah night-vision gear was from Britain, Israel says...

Israeli intelligence officials have complained to Britain and the United States that sensitive night-vision equipment recovered from Hezbollah fighters during the war in Lebanon had been exported by Britain to Iran. British officials said the equipment had been intended for use in a U.N. anti-narcotics campaign.

You know, if you manage to forget about the dead Israeli soldiers who died because of this, it is almost cute to think British officials actually believed the Iranian government when it told them the night vision equipment was for drug enforcement efforts.

Israeli officials say they believe the state-of-the-art equipment, found in Hezbollah command-and-control headquarters in southern Lebanon during the just-concluded war, was part of a British government-approved shipment of 250 pieces of night-vision equipment sent to Iran in 2003.

Israeli military intelligence confirmed that one of the pieces of equipment is a Thermo-vision 1000 LR tactical night-vision system, serial No. 155010, part No. 193960, manufactured by Agema, a high-tech equipment company with branches in Bedfordshire, England, and San Diego. A spokesman for Agema in San Diego denied all knowledge of the system.

The equipment, which needed special export-license approval from the British government, was passed to the Iranians through a program run and administered by the U.N. Drug Control Program. The equipment uses infrared imaging to provide nighttime surveillance that allows the user to detect people and vehicles moving in the dark at a range of several miles.

Read it all, and weep.

Posted by Ruy Diaz at 10:01 AM | Comments (5)

August 19, 2006

Albania: Uighur Jihadis Reach Albania

One of Europe's Muslim nations accepts fellow Muslims, even if they might be terrorists. Notice the Bush administration made this move after better options--keeping them in GITMO, sending them back to China--were closed by our stupidly altruistic legal system: Albania takes the men no one wants

FIVE Asian men who had been detained at Guantanamo Bay for years as dangerous terrorists have been sent to Albania, a poor Balkan nation eager to please Washington.

Their arrival in Albania involved intense behind-the-scenes diplomatic activity in Washington, Ottawa, Albania's capital Tirana, Beijing and elsewhere. Their move has implications for a US Appeals Court, NATO and the relations of several European countries with China, while also underlining the Bush Administration's difficulties in reducing the population of the Guantanamo Bay prison camp as international calls for it to be closed increase.[...]

Posted by Ruy Diaz at 5:16 PM | Comments (0)

Pakistan: Father of UK Al Qaeda Suspect Is Also In Custody

During the recent UK police operation, arresting suspects in a drive called Operation Overt, a total of 24 people are now detained at Paddington Green high security police station. Requests are being made to have them detained for as long as possible, under the terms of the Terrorism Act 2006, which is 24 days. Most of those detained were arrested on August 9 and August 10.

One of the suspects was arrested from Birmingham, a 21 year old named Tayyib Rauf. Operation Overt was handled in conjunction with US and Pakistani authorities. In Pakistan, Tayib;s elder brother, 26-year old Rashid Rauf, was detained by Pakistani authorities at around the same time as the police picked up Tayib, and also people in High Wycombe and east London.

Rashid Rauf was accused of being a link between the suspects, who had apparently planned to blow up several US bound planes with liquid explosives, and Al Qaeda. His contact was said to be Matiur Rehman, an Al Qaeda recruiter and explosives trainer. Rehman was employed at the Khalden terror training camp and the Farooq camp at Khost. Richard Reid, the shoe bomber, is said to have been trained by Rehman.

The Pakistani authorities have said that Rashid Rauf has already confessed to meeting Rehman.

We also stated that money from a UK charity, "Muslim Charity, based in Retford, Nottingham, had been sent to Pakistan to three individuals, ostensibly to assist in relief following the earthquake of October 8, which hit Kashmir particularly severely. It appears that one of these charity payments was made out to Rashid Rauf, one of two British suspects arrested in Pakistan.

Subsequently to the revelations about the money (a total of 50million, or $94 million) coming from UK charity, other charities were said to have also contributed, stated the UK Mirror. According to Associated Press, via Seattle Pi, there were five charities in all who were involved in sending the money. One transaction involved more than $9.4 million.

Rashid Rauf and Tayib Rauf's father, Abdul Rauf, owns a cake-making company in Britain, Classic Confectionery Supplies. Tayib worked as a delivery driver for the company. But Abdul Rauf also is a co-founder of a Muslim charity, called Crescent Relief, which is based in Dagenham, Essex. Abdul Rauf is listed as director of this charity.

The news of the Crescent Relief charity being involved with potentially funding the Al Qaeda plot has been carried by Time and Australia's Sunday Telegraph.

Time also discloses that the Pakistani authorities are refusing to talk about the involvement of Rashid Rauf with the earthquake funds. Tasneem Aslam, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said: "Rashid Rauf had nothing to do with any charity involved in the earthquake relief work or with any relief work as such."

But the involvement of his father, Abdul Rauf, becomes more suspicious, as today's Pakistan Daily Times reports that he is now in custody in Pakistan.

The Interior Minister, Aftab Sherpao, stated that he was not aware of Abdul Rauf being detained. The Daily Times, from AFP sources, quotes from senior officials who say he met Rashid shortly before his son's arrest.

An intelligence source claims: "He (Abdul Rauf) was taken into custody from the airport when he was leaving the country."

We wrote of the problems of charities sometimes acting as "fronts" for terrorist activities. The group Jamaat ud-Dawa is a case in point, as it is said by the US and others to be a front organisation for Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). On August 10, the day that news of the Operation Overt terror plot became known publicly, iJamaat ud-Dawah's founder, and formerly the founder of LeT, Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, was placed under house arrest in Lahore, though no reason was given by the Pakistani authorities.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 4:57 PM | Comments (2)

August 18, 2006

UK: Petrol Bomb Attack On Swindon Mosque

In the early hours of yesterday morning, a mosque in Swindon in Wiltshire, the Jamia mosque in Broad Street, was attacked for a third time, states the Buckinghamshire Free Press and the Western Daily Press. The Jamia Mosque is owned by the Thamesdown Islamic Association.

We reported on the two previous attacks at the mosque. On October 31, a 16 year old youth was remanded in custody, accused setting fire to the Jamia mosque on September 21, and later committing racially aggravated damage to the same mosque on October 4.

Between 20 September and 30 September, the youth had daubed a swastika and racist graffiti onto the town's Sikh temple in Kembrey Street. In January, the youth, then aged 17, was jailed for one year for these offences. His name was Michael Matthews.

On Wednesday, February 8, the mosque was attacked for a second time, when its windows were smashed, at the height of the Muslim "Danish cartoon" protests.

Mr Mansoor Khan, general secretary of the Thames Down Islamic Association Centre, claimed that the vandal(s) had acted out of ignorance. "The people who have done this do not have enough information," he said. He stated that no worshippers from the mosque had made demonstrations against the cartoons, but said that worshippers from the mosque had sent a petition to the Danish Embassy.

The attack from yesterday is more serious than the last two events, as it involved a petrol bomb. Fortunately, the home-made device failed to go off.

Police on patrol arrested a man in nearby Fleming Way, and last night a 22 year old man from the Moredon area was charged on one count of attempted arson, four counts of "religiously aggravated criminal damage" and one count of possessing an offensive weapon. He was detained in custody at a police station, and should have appeared in court today.

Just after 5 am, Azim Khan arrived at the mosque to find the exterior walls of the Jamia mosque adorned with swastikas and anti-Islam statements in white paint. He said that the community had been fearing an attack, (following the recent news of the terror plot by Muslims to attack planes).

He said: "When something national or international happens we get this local reaction and we were expecting it. My advice is please stay calm. Whatever happens nationally, we are not part of it. We want to live in Swindon peacefully. This is our country too and we have all got to look after it."

Khan stated that the mosque damage was minimal, and "could have been a lot worse".

Mansour Khan, aged 63, confirmed that they had been expecting an attack: "We had a meeting with police and we told them we needed extra vigilance in the area after what happened in London. We told them this last Friday and lo and behold it, happens."

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 8:09 PM | Comments (1)

Australia: Jihad Jack Walks Free

Today, news from the BBC, The Australian, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Melbourne Age reports that Joseph Terrence Thomas, or "Jihad Jack", the former Melbourne taxi driver, has been released from jail, with his sentence quashed.

On the steps of the courthouse, his lawyer said that Jihad Jack had been suffering from psychiatric problems for the past few months which had left him "debilitated". Prosecutors announced that they would be seeking a retrial.

Thomas had been the first person to be convicted under Australia's new terrorism laws, and the decision of the Court of Appeal in Victoria today appears to have put the effectiveness of this legislation into doubt.

To recap on the case, from our previous postings - on February 26 this year, Joseph Thomas was convicted of gaining money from the terror group Al Qaeda and using a falsified passport. On a supplementary charge, of providing the group with resources in 2002 and 2003, he was found not guilty.

He had been arrested in Karachi in January 2003. He had confessed to interrogators in Pakistan that he had gone to Afghanistan in 2001 to fight with the Taliban.

He attended the al-Farooq training camp, where individuals were trained in military tactics, before being sent to fight "infidels". He had fought for about a week "on the front line".

He had been given US $3,500 (Aus $4,750) to fly back to Australia by an al-Qaeda member, one Khaled bin Attash. Attash is believed to have been involved in the attack against USS Cole in Aden in 2000. Attash was apprehended by Pakistani authorities in May 2003.

In Pakistan, he was placed in detention for five months, and he claimed he was mistreated and threatened with harm while being interrogated by an American official known only as "Joe". Joe had threatened to crush Jack's testicles in a vice, and said that he could have his wife Maryati (an Indonesian) in Australia harmed, by having her breasts placed in a vice. He also claimed that he had been assaulted by a Pakistani interrogator. A hood was placed over his head at one stage, and he was strangled. He was interviewed in Pakistan by Australian Federal Police (AFP) in March 2003, after being in detention for several weeks.

On March 31 he was sentenced at Melbourne in the Supreme Court of Victoria, to a sentence of not more than five years. He was told by Judge Philip Cummins that he should spend a period of no less than two years behind bars.

On June 24, Jack was assaulted by another prisoner in Barwon Prison, Lara. His lawyer, Rob Stary, said his client had been taken to Thomas Embling Hospital, and from there to the psychiatric unit of Port Phillip Prison. Stary claimed his client had suffered a nervous breakdown, and was appealing against the court's conviction.

On July 24, the Victorian Court of Appeal heard from queen's counsel Lex Lasry that while in Pakistani custody, Thomas had believed he had to "cooperate" with his interrogators. Thomas had believed that failure to do so would have meant that he would be sent to Guantanamo or held in Pakistan indefinitely.

Amnesty International had tried to become involved in the appeal, but their application was rejected by the appeal justices, Chris Maxwell, Frank Vincent and Peter Buchanan. Amnesty had reasoned that Thomas' case, involving detention and questioning in Pakistan, came under international law.

On July 5, before the appeal hearing began, Victoria's Supreme Court released suppressed data, which included 1,000 pages of documents, closed-court evidence and interviews with officials which took place in Pakistan.

Amongst these, an AFP case report from March 2003 stated: "He personally knew, had relationships with, was asked to carry out acts by, lived with, was supported by, was provided money by, discussed terrorist acts with, was provided false documents by and was present at demonstrations of explosives with many al-Qaeda members over a period of 18 months....He was tasked by Khaled bin Attash to return to Australia to identify military targets as bin Laden needed a white person in Australia."

The details of the AFP March 2003 report had large sections still blacked out for security reasons. The report relates to an interview conducted on February 27 between Thomas and six AFP men. They asked him: "How many groups are working in Australia? How many people probably are members of al-Qaeda from Australia?" Thomas' answer is blacked out.

The evidence gained in Pakistan, upon which the entire case and subsequent conviction had rested, was today ruled as "unadmissable" by the Appeals Court. He had not had a lawyer present during his interrogation.

Lasry said today: "The interview was not voluntary because the applicant was not answering questions on the basis of free choice."

However, even though Jihad Jack has been set free, the details of an interview he gave to ABC television were not made under any duress. The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions stated that the comments from this interview should be made as an argument with which to prosecute him. Chris Maxwell, Frank Vincent and Peter Buchanan agreed to hear further submissions in this regard.

Mark Taft, SC, for Thomas, said the request to use the ABC television interview as evidence was "bloody-minded".

An edited transcript of Thomas' inerview with ABC reporter Sally Neighbour, which was broadcast on a Four Corners report on February 27 this year, can be found here, from the Australian.

As Jihad Jack met with his Indonesian wife Maryati and his three kids outside the court (pictured), and also with his parents, who have had to sell the home they have lived in for 33 years to pay for the ongoing costs of their son's defence, questions are being raised about the effectiveness of the law. But for Jihad Jack, once the hugs were over, there was another priority to be attended to. He told reporters: "Got to go and pray, the light's going down."

Chris Merritt, in a commentary in the Australian states: "When the legal system allows a mate of Osama bin Laden to walk free in Melbourne, something is terribly wrong. Australians should rightly be outraged at this decision. Allowing Jack Thomas to re-enter civilised society - even temporarily - is ludicrous."

Another commentary from the same paper states: In Australia, the AFP is faced with the more acute dilemma of trying to balance public safety with the need to secure convictions. When it discovers a terrorist plot, does it risk public safety and sit on the evidence until it compiles enough to guarantee a conviction? Or does it make early arrests to foil the plot knowing that it may not have enough evidence to secure a conviction?

These questions will need to be addressed in many more such cases, and not just in Australia. With Rashid Rauf currently in custody in Pakistan and under interrogation, will his evidence be deemed admissable in the upcoming trial of the 24 suspects in UK custody from the Operation Overt surveillance operation? These suspects have not yet been charged, and proof of the "al Qaeda link" is dependent in great part upon the testimony of Rashid Rauf.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 5:16 PM | Comments (0)

Indonesia: Government Reduces Sentences of Muslim Bali Bombers

Who says there is no compassion in the Islamic world? For infidel-killers: Indonesia cuts Bali prison terms

At least 12 militants jailed in Indonesia over the 2002 Bali bombings have had their sentences reduced to mark independence day.

It is an Indonesian tradition to reduce jail terms on public holidays, but the move is likely to anger Australia, where many Bali victims came from....

The 12 men convicted over the Bali attacks had their sentences cut by up to four months each.

"They are entitled to remissions because they have behaved well," Bali's Kerobokan prison chief Ilham Djaya told Reuters news agency.[...]

Posted by Ruy Diaz at 12:48 PM | Comments (0)

US: Muslims Blame "Media Coverage" for Image Problems

It is not the terrorism, it is not the desire for conquest, it is not the unbending intolerance... it is the Media! Panel: Media coverage creating 'Islamic-phobia'

NDIANAPOLIS - Media portrayals of Muslims often contain so much bias that they've helped fuel an "Islamic-phobia," experts said Thursday during a panel discussion at the National Association of Black Journalists' national convention.

"We're given the most extreme manifestations and there is no balance," Dawud Walid, executive director of the Michigan branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said of American media coverage. "It shouldn't be 95 percent negative and 5 percent positive. It shouldn't be just about Ramadan. It needs to be more than that."

The panel, which also included a newspaper columnist, university administrator and community activist, showcased the diversity of the nation's Muslim community.[...]

Posted by Ruy Diaz at 12:28 PM | Comments (0)

France: Fake Islamist Threatens Paris Tourists

News from Agence France Presse via Expatica states that yesterday, a youth was arrested after he had threatened tourists from the Arc de Triomphe (pictured) with what appeared to be a gun. He had climbed to the top of the massive monument at the upper end of the Champs Elysées, and pointed his "gun" at tourists.

Though situated within a busy traffic roundabout, the arch is a popular tourist site, visited by more than a million people per year, and has some remarkable sculpture adorning it. The arch was commissioned in 1806, and beneath it lies France's tomb of the unknown soldier. A spiral staircase allows people to climb to the top to admire the view, or to intimidate tourists.

The gun was a compressed air pistol. The youth had scrawled on his T-shirt and on his upper body the words "revendication Al-qaeda" - "in the name of Al Qaeda." He waved the pistol at people who were also on the top of the monument, and at one stage fired into the air.

Though described as a "toy", air pistols at close range can be dangerous. Police arrived, and overpowered the youth.

His ethnic identity was not mentioned in the report, but he is said to come from a northern Paris suburb. It was within the northern suburbs that Muslim rioting took place last year from October to November.

The youth was said to be aged 17, and with no previous criminal record. He is currently in a psychiatric ward, undergoing evaluation of his mental state.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 11:02 AM | Comments (1)

Belgium: Muslim Headscarf Teachers Lose Appeal

We wrote on July 12 that two Muslim women teachers, who had refused to remove their hijabs or "Muslim headscarves" at work and had been consequently sacked, were taking their case to an appeal.

The teachers had started off during the current school year complying with a ban on carrying "noticeable religious symbols", which had been applied since April 2005. But around the New Year, the teachers decided to become "political Muslims" and wear their headscarves in defiance of the ruling.

Jacky Goris of the Brussels school group said that during classes on religion, they would have been able to wear their head coverings, and "Outside the lessons, they could have worn a discreet scarf or a little hat. I would not have had a problem with that either." But blatantly parading their hijabs was "a breach of contract."

The teachers had been employed at different primary schools, one in the district of Etterbeek, and the other in Sint-Pieters-Woluwe. They were given several warnings before they were fired.

Today, Expatica reports the results of their appeal, and the Iranian Islamist news agency IRNA has infringed Expatica's copyright by reproducing their article verbatim.

The appeal was being held in the presence of a magistrate and two public school staff members, not affiliated to the Brussels school group. The results should have been due by the end of July. But the result has been confirmed by Jacky Goris of the Brussels school group - the women have lost their appeal. The lawyer for the two women has also confirmed that they have lost their appeal.

The schools where the women taught were already within their rights to enforce bans on noticeable items of a religious nature, before the appeals were launched. The Brussels Minister of Education, Guy Vanhengel, had agreed that teachers should not wear "noticeable religious symbols". The Flemish Education Minister, Frank Vandenbroucke, had previously said that it is a school's choice to decide how teachers should present themselves.

But for these strident proponents of Muslims' "rights" to disregard rulings and standards set for the majority, it does not seem to mater that their quest to enforce their religious beliefs over those of the country they inhabit has become a burden on the taxpayers through this appeal. It is unlikely that the women will be paying for the cost of their appeal.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 10:34 AM | Comments (0)

Kyrgyzstan: Islamists Of Hizb ut-Tahrir Becoming More Militant

We reported on August 7 that a prominent cleric who allowed his mosque in southern Kyrgystan to be frequented by members of the extremist Islamic group, Hizb ut-Tahrir, was shot.

The cleric, Muhammadrafiq Kamalov, aka Rafiq Qori Kamoluddin, had earlier in the year been arrested and placed under surveillance from Kyrgystan's National Security Service (SNB) in May, suspected of involvement with radicals who had raided a checkpoint on the Kyrgyz border. His name and phone number had been found in a book belonging to one of those killed in the raid.

Kamoluddin had bragged that he allowed Hizb ut-Tahrir members to worship at his mosque, but said he did not allow them to disseminate their propaganda. Last month, it appeared that Hizb ut-Tahrir was becoming more active and insurgent in Kyrgyzstan.They had links with the terror group Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.

Kamoluddin's mosque, the Al-Sarahsiy Mosque in the southern city of Kara-Suu (Karasu), adjoining the Uzbek border, was regarded as a center of Islamic extremism. On August 6, a car was traveling through the adjacent city of Osh, and security officers of SNB were interested. An official said: "Around 10:30 p.m. on August 6, 2006, identified members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan were squeezed out of a densely populated district of Osh in order to avoid casualties among peaceful civilians. After that, officers of the Kyrgyz National Security Service attempted to stop the terrorists' white car, a Daewoo Nexia. However, the persons in the car did not follow [law-enforcement] demands and opened fire with automatic weapons. As a result of return fire, armed terrorists were destroyed by the National Security Service."

"When they searched their car, [security forces] found one AK-SU Kalashnikov automatic rifle, three full magazines, 266 cartridges, four RGD-5 hand grenades, one F-1 grenade, one RPK automatic rifle magazine, a road map of Uzbekistan where a number of locations were marked with the word 'jihad,' one pair of army binoculars, extremist religious literature in the Kyrgyz and Uzbek languages, and fake passports."

The imam of Al-Sarahsiy Mosque, Muhammadrafiq Kamalov, aka Rafiq Qori Kamoluddin (pictured below right), was among the dead, who were identified by SNB as members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.

As expected, many of his worshippers have protested the cleric's innocence, and demonstrations were held.

Recently, the Hizb ut-Tahrir, which is illegal in Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Takikistan, as well as Russia, have been more active in the region, and their links with the terrorist group Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan more overt.

On Wednesday 16 August, the Russian news site Interfax-Religion stated that two Islamic extremists were detained in the country. In the Osh region, southern Kyrgyzstan, a member of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan was detained. A search of his house uncovered two F1 grenades. Also, there were "ten Kalashnikov assault rifle cartridges and a capsule with a detonator in his house," as well as "28 books, four CDs and two audio cassettes with recordings touting religious extremism were found as well. Two packages presumably containing 38 grams of heroin were also confiscated."

A press release also stated that: "More than 20 brochures and pamphlets of the Hizb ut-Tahrir party and eleven firearm cartridges were confiscated from a detainee in the town of Karasu, the Osh region, born in 1973."

Yesterday Interfax-Religion reported that a special operation by Kyrgyz law-enforcement agencies in the city of Kara-Suu, where Imam Kamoluddin had preached, and also in neighbouring villages, had uncovered more than 100 leaflets from the banned Hizb ut-Tahrir group.

The city of Osh's interior board press service stated: "Apart from the leaflets, the agencies confiscated CDs and audiotapes with radical religious materials and four computers. All confiscated materials have been handed over to the state agency for religious affairs for analysis. The operation was carried out on order of the Osh city Prosecutor's Office."

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 1:04 AM | Comments (0)

Saudi Arabia: Gay Wedding Upsets Islamist Regime

With a hat tip to the Religion of Peace, an article from AFP/SAPA via South Africa's Independent reports on a bizarre wedding party which was described in the Saudi newspaper al-Watan on Wednesday.

At the southern town of Jizan on Tuesday, some 400 males attended a "wedding party of two men". 20 of the wedding guests were detained, for "emulating women".

250 people were rounded up, and most were later released. The Al-Watan report stated that on a hill above the square where the party was held, some guests were seen to be chewing qat a plant based drug (with mild amphetamine effects, but some addictive power).

Sodomy was condemned outright by Mohammed, but dressing up as a woman was, according to one hadith, something for which he had some ambiguity. In the Sunan Abu Dawud there is related the following:

Book 41, Number 4910:

Narrated AbuHurayrah:

A hermaphrodite (mukhannath) who had dyed his hands and feet with henna was brought to the Prophet (peace be upon him). He asked: What is the matter with this man? He was told: Apostle of Allah! he affects women's get-up. So he ordered regarding him and he was banished to an-Naqi'. The people said: Apostle of Allah! should we not kill him? He said: I have been prohibited from killing people who pray. AbuUsamah said: Naqi' is a region near Medina and not a Baqi'.

But despite the fact that most transvestites in the decadent West are rather eccentric heterosexuals, and those who were arrested were dressed as women, in Saudi Arabia it is illegal to be "homosexual".

Last November we reported on the arrests of five people for holding a "gay beauty contest".

Despite the strict prohibitions against gay activity in the Wahhabi-controlled kingdom, our research into the Google searches on various topics showed that the Saudis are the second most interested group in searches for "gay sex", and also they are the country with the most Google searches for "ass sex".

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 12:18 AM | Comments (0)

August 17, 2006

UK: Muslims Hack Catholic Website

News from the Northwestern Evening Mail states that Muslims have hacked into the website of a Catholic church. The church is St Patrick's, situated on Michaelson Road, Barrow Island in Barrow in Furness, Cumbria.

Last week, the website for the group - www.stpatrickscumbria.co.uk - instead of showing the information relating to St Patrick's Church, was diverted to display pages from a website called Islam Answers Back, which belongs to Islam Info an anti-Christian Muslim website. Since the web page was diverted, it is now impossible to view the original Catholic site.

A message appears saying: "Directory Listing Denied", followed by the statement "This Virtual Directory does not allow contents to be listed".

The parish priest at St Patrick's Church, Father Joe O'Connor, was not contactable, but Father John Watson, a colleague from St Mary's Roman Catholic Church, told Northwestern Evening Mail: "I'm flummoxed by this. I don't know enough technically to understand how such a thing could happen."

Canon Stephen Shield of the diocese of Lancaster said: "Nobody seems to have a clue as to how this has happened. I had not authorised anyone to take action about the website."

Muslims on webforums often boast about their hacking skills. What they fail to realise is that such actions are regarded by anyone who finds them, not as a victory for Islam, but a victory against themselves. No-one thinks such actions are clever.

And it is a sign of desperation that Muslims who despise Christians show such intolerance, especially at this time, when people are waking up to the threat that so many young and angry Muslims may be to our societies. This is not a way to make friends and influence people.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 11:56 PM | Comments (0)

Bangladesh: Anniversary Of Serial Bombing - Islamic Party Accused

Today is the anniversary of a serial bomb attack upon Bangladesh, which drew civilians and government members out of their complacency. On Wednesday August 17 2005, a series of bombs went off in 63 of the nation's 64 districts. More than 450 bombs were detonated, and two people, a man and a boy were killed. More than 200 people were injured. At the scene of each blast, there were leaflets, demanding that the judiciary in Bangladesh should adopt sharia law, or face further attacks.

The bombings were the handiwork of Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and their affiliate group Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (vigilant Muslim citizens of Bangladesh). The demands to institute sharia were ignored, and there followed bomb attacks upon courthouses in Chandpur, Dhaka and Chittagong on October 3, killing 2 people and injuring 15 more.

Threats were made against police stations, jails and individual judges, and after Ramadan ended on November 4, the attacks became more freocious. No longer were simple IED bombs used, and suicide bombers started to operate. The first of these happened on November 14, when two judges in Jhalakathi were killed by a bomb thrown by a young man who subsequently tried to blow himself up.

Then on November 29 there were twin suicide attacks upon courts in Chittagong and Gazipur, killing more that 10 people and severely injuring 21. One of the suicide bombers, despite blowing off both his legs and his hands, survived for a few days. In his pockets he bore a note saying "We will continue our Jihadi mission until establishing an Islamic welfare state."

His information revealed the extent of JMB and JMJB's involvement in the August 17 attacks, and how they were basing their operations in mosques in Tangail district, central Bangladesh.

On december 1 there was another courthouse bombing, again at Gazipur, 80 miles southeast of Dhaka, killing two and injuring more than twenty.

Eventually, the leader of JMB, Abdur Rahman (right in the picture at top) was arrested on March 2. Bangla Bhai (left in picture above, with black beard), a senior member of JMB and the head of JMJB, was arrested on Maych 6, even though he tried to blow himself up.

Eventually, on May 29, Abdur Rahman, Bangla Bhai and three other leaders of JMB were sentenced to death for organising the bombings of the two Jhalakathi judges on November 14.

While in custody, Abdur Rahman had made strong hints that his group had been assisted by senior members of the government, though his interrogators would not allow the names of these sponsors to be revealed. Rahman had hinted that government members had also helped to organise the co-ordinated serial bombings of August 17, 2005.

There are four parties in the coalition government. The largest of these is the Bangladesh National Party (BNP), led by Khaleda Zia. There is another party, the Jatiya or Ershad party, which is led by Ershad, a former dictator of Bangladesh. The two other parties in the coalition government are Islami Oikya Jote and the Jamaat-e-Islami, which we discussed recently.

There have been accusations that political parties have been involved in the August 17 national bombing campaign. Only a day after the attacks, the South Asia Analysis Group reported that the Jamaat-e-Islami was making accusations against the main opposition party, the secular Awami League, led by Hasina Wazed. It was said:

" leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami, a coalition partner of the ruling BNP, have also blamed Awami League for these blasts. Jamaat leaders at a rally in Dhaka alleged that the Awami League conducted the unprecedented blasts as part of a blue print to make the country politically unstable.

Though the intelligence and law enforcing agencies failed in their job, they also obliquely referred to the Awami League for being responsible for the bomb blasts.

The accusations continued. In December, the Awami League accused the Jamaat-e-Islami and the Islami Oikya Jote of being linked to militants.

On December 6, we reported that Mufti Fazlul Huq Aminee, the chairman of Islami Oikya Jote then counter-claimed, saying that the Awami League had been behind the AUgust 17 blasts, even though Sheikh Hasina and her party had been victims of bomb attacks by JMB since 2004.

On January 3 this year, the Islami Oikya Jote party accused the government of hiding information about the bombers. It implied that the government was protecting the Jamaat-e-Islami. In a press release by IOJ said: "The government is not letting the nation know about the activities of JMB cadres just to protect Jamaat."

When we discussed the Jamaat-e-Islami and its links with the terrorists, we said that a report from the Daily Star of April 28 this year said that all the seven members of JMB's ruling council had links to Jamaat-e-Islami and its violent student wing, Islami Chhatra Shibir.

Jamaat-e-Islami had fought to prevent Bangladesh splitting away from Pakistan in the war for independence, which was won in 1971. The movement has always affirmed, like its counterpart in Pakistan, that it wants to establish an Islamist state in Bangladesh, even though it pretends to be part of the democracy.

The Islami Oikya Jote is not much better. This group is behind most of the persecutions of the Muslim sect known as the Ahmadiyya, or Ahmadi. The IOJ has also openly stated its support for the Taliban of Afghanistan. The Islami Oikya Jote wants to establish an Islamic state in Bangladesh, but they are neither as established nor as large as Jamaat-e-Islami.

That there are links between the government and Islamists is almost certain. We reported on October 5 that the leader of another Islamist terror group had been arrested. Mufti Abdul Hannan was the leader of Harkatul Jihad.

He threatened that he had links in government, and vowed that he would name their names. That never hapened. His group had been active for years, but was only made illegal by the government on October 17.

On May 3 we reported that Khaleda Zia, the prime minister, told the parliament that the names of the Islamists' patrons were not known, but it is doubtful if she was telling the truth. ""It is yet to be confirmed whether any international group is involved in it, as the probe is still going on," she said, adding that when names were known the "whole world" would know.

On April 18, a leading member of the Jamaat-e-Islami party who had been arrested confessed to RAB (Rapid Action Battalion, the paramilitary security service) that he had links with JMB members, and had entertained them in his home.

Over the past days, the Daily Star has been gloomy about the anniversary today of the August 17 blasts, and bemoaning the fact that there has not been information forthcoming about the patrons of JMB, nor of the foreign sponsors. We know already from confessions made by one of the JMB's council members, Ataur Rahman Sunny (brother of Abdur Rahman) that funds had come from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Brunei, Sudan and some other Middle Eastern countries and some Islamic NGOs.

We already know that a Kuwait-based group called the Revival of Islamic Heritage Society (RIHS), has been active in Bangladesh. A report from India Monitor claims that RIHS had bankrolled the attacks upon Bangladesh on August 17, with the assistance of Dr Muhammad Asadullah Al Ghalib.

Ghalib is leader of a group calling itself AHAB (Ahle Hadith Andolon Bangladesh). His group had been responsible for building 25 mosques with RIHS money in the upazila of Shakhipur in Tangail district.

Before he died from his injuries, the Chittagong courthouse suicide bomber, Hossain Ali, confessed that many of JMB's activities and plans of actions had been planned at the at the Shakhipur Mosque, one of the AHAB/RIHS-funded mosques.

RIHS is a US designated terrorist entity, being placed on an exclusion list on January 9, 2002. Yet despite this, only days before the double suicide bombings at Chittagong and Gazipur courthouses, the government had approved of a massive donation to RIHS, to build mosques and madrassas.

The Star wrote: "Although investigators unearthed as startling information as the JMB's plan to attack army personnel and overthrow the government, they have done little to identify the political patrons and foreign links of the militants who banged to limelight by blasting near simultaneous 500 bombs across the country a year ago today."

They wrote more today on this subject, and quoted State Minister for Home Affairs Lutfozzaman Babar. He said: "But there is great success. We're continuing our campaign against them and dedicated teams are working towards it. I think this should be continued even if the government changes." Babar refers to the elections which will be held at the start of next year.

But Babar had been deliberately obtuse about JMB in the past. As late as January last year, he was even doubting the existence of JMB. According to Asia Times, he had said on January 26, 2005: "We don't know officially about the existence of the JMB. Only some so-called newspapers are publishing reports on it. We don't have their constitution in our record."

At that time, the Awami League had been well aware of JMB, as they had been victims of its bomb attacks. A report by the Awami League had said that at least 34 bomb blasts between 1999 and February 2005 had taken place, in which 164 persons were killed and 1,735 people injured.

And today, according to the Bangladesh New Age, the Islami Oikya Jote party has made an announcement. The head of IOJ, Misbahur Rahman Chowdhury, said: "The Jamaat-e-Islami was connected with the countrywide serial bomb blasts."

Chowdhury said that on September 18, his party would produce a 600 page document, detailing the links of the Jamaat-e-Islami party with the serial bombings of August 17, 2005. Masudur Rahman Bikrampuri, president of Dhaka Mahanagar Committee of the Islami Oikya Jote, led a meeting at the auditorium of the Photo Journalist Association of Bangladesh.

Chowdhury said that till today the government could not arrest the godfathers connected with the bomb blasts, and claimed the Jamaat-e-Islami had taken up arms against the constitution and the people of the country to take revenge of their defeat in 1971.

And in other news today, on the actual anniversary of the August 17 attacks, with the names of patrons and funders still officially withheld from the public, there was a sad piece of news. The poet Shamsur Rahman (pictured right) died at 6.30 pm local time.

Hugely popular in his country, the 77 year old poet had been slipping away for some time. A tribute can be found here. But despite his huge popularity and the respect he was held in, poets such as Rahman and other authors have been targets of Islamists.

On January 18, 1999, Shamsur Rahman became one of the first well-known victims of Harkatul Jihad. Three Islamists from the terror group, armed with pick-axes, broke into Shamsur Rahman's apartment. The poet and his wife survived, though his wife was struck with an axe and received serious wounds.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 10:44 PM | Comments (0)

US: Muslim Woman Fails Airport Liquid Explosives Test - But Not Arrested

There is something very strange here. A report from Associated Press via MSNBC states that a woman of Pakistani descent caused an airport in West Virginia to be evacuated, after possessions in her hand luggage tested positive twice for liquid explosives.

A terminal at the Tri-State Airport at Ceredo was evacuated after two bottles of fluid in the woman's hand luggage tested positive twice for explosives residue - firstly with a scanner, and secondly with a sniffer dog trained to detect explosives substances.

The woman, aged 28, had moved to Huntington, W. Va,. from Jackson Michigan. Proper forensics tests are to be carried out on two bottles from four that were with her as she tried to board a plane. Though she was still at the airport several hours after the bottles failed the tests, she had not been arrested.

For details see here.

UPDATE: Chemical tests have now shown that the two bottles do NOT contain liquid explosives, states the BBC World Service. It seems the scanner and the dog are error-prone. Maybe the scanner can be modified, but the dog? Maybe it is time for the pooch to be retired....

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 8:31 PM | Comments (0)

US: Mosque Fire Is "Not Suspicious"

Earlier today, several items on newsfeeds appeared, describing a fire which happened at a mosque in El Cajon, near San Diego, California. The fire broke out this morning long before dawn. It was placed under control by firefighters by 3,30 am local time. The news was carried by Associated Press by Kesq.com and Mercury News, and also by Signs on San Diego.

The Kurdish Community Islamic Center on Magnolia Avenue was gutted in the fire, with an estimated $2 million in damage caused. No-one was hurt in the blaze.

But before people jump to conclusions and assume it was an arson attack related to Islamophobia, a late edition of the Union Tribune in Signs on San Diego reports that the building had not been intentionally set on fire.

El Cajon City fire spokeswoman Monica Zech said this afternoon that though investigators still needed to identify the exact cause of the blaze, there was no evidence of arson or hate crime. The fire is thought to have started on the first floor (ground floor) of the 3 storey building.

She said that firefighters from El Cajon, East County, La Mesa, Lemon Grove, Santee, San Miguel and San Diego arrived to put out the fire when: "Just as they arrived, flames shot through roof."

Four hours after the blaze was extinguished, firefighters were still mopping up. The second storey had collapsed, and the south side of the mosque and community center, which caters to the religious needs of Kurdish refugees and citizens, was considered too unstable to enter.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 7:28 PM | Comments (0)

Denmark: Hizb ut-Tahrir Islamist Gets Jail Sentence

We reported on March 20 that a leader of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Denmark was indicted on charges of threatening the government. Fadi Abdullatif (pictured) was finally sentenced today to three months' imprisonment, states Reuters via Than Hnien News.

He was found guilty of threatening the Danish Prime Minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen in leaflets which were distributed in 2004. Abdullatif had been arrested for these leaflets in August, 2005. These fliers had called for the emlimination of any Western leaders who tried to prevent Muslims from going to Iraq to fight the coalition troops. He was additionally found guilty under anti-racism laws of calling for the killing of Jews on the Hizb ut-Tahrir website.

Abdullatif has appealed against the court's decision, according to reports in Danish media. There have been moves in Denmark to have Hizb ut-Tahrir made illegal, but in 2004, the director of public prosecutions stated that the organisation was a legal entity.

Fadi Abdullatif had been charged previously for leaflets he had distributed in 2002:

In March and April 2002, Hizb Ut Tahrir handed out leaflets in a square in Copenhagen, and at a mosque. The leaflet, which also appeared on the Danish groups internet site, makes threats against Jews, using a quote from the Koran urging Muslims to 'kill them wherever you find them, and turn them out from where they have been turned you out.' The leaflet also said, 'The Jews are a people of slander...a treacherous people... they fabricate lies and twist words from their right context.' And the leaflet describes suicide bombings in Israel as "legitimate" acts of "Martyrdom".

In October 2002 Abdullatif had been given a sentence of 60 days in prison, suspended, for distributing racist propaganda. He used examples from the Koran to justify the killing of Jews.

Hizb ut-Tahrir was founded in Jerusalem in 1953 by an Islamic jurist, Taqiuddin al-Nabhani. It is banned in most countries of the Middle East, as it calls for the dissolution of governments and the establishment of a Caliphate, a sharia state encompassing all regions where Muslims live. Its Anglophone website states that: "It also aims to bring back the Islamic guidance for mankind and to lead the Ummah into a struggle with Kufr, its systems and its thoughts so that Islam encapsulates the world."

The group Hizb ut-Tahrir has been banned in Russia since February 2003, when it was deemed a terrorist organisation, and is also banned in Germany and in Holland, and in all of the Central Asian Republics which were under Soviet rule. Hizb ut-Tahrir was banned in Pakistan in January this year.

In Britain the group has been officially banned from University campuses, following vicious campaigns of intimidation against Muslim students, particularly women. Though Tony Blair has spoken of banning the group officially, this has not happened. In the 1990s, they regularly made death threats against homosexual rights campaigner, Peter Tatchell, and have spoken of the Uk parliament as "the infidel parliament".

In Bangladesh, the group has been responsible for most of the protests about the Danish cartoons of Mohammed. In February, they organised a march in Dhaka, in which banners carried the slogans: "Death to those who degrade our beloved prophet!", "Hang culprits" and also demanded the expulsion of EU ambassadors from Muslim countries.

In Indonesia, Hizb ut-Tahrir is actively involved in persecution campaigns against Christians, and works in conjunction with the violent Front Pembela Islam to close down churches and prevent Christians from practicing their faith.

On Saturday, November 5 last year, we reported that at a carnival held in Melbourne that day, to celebrate Eid ul-Fitr, the end of Ramadan, Australian Hizb ut-Tahrir's members were distributing leaflets. These fliers claimed that Muslims had "enormously rejected their evil and corrupt rulers that the West have appointed over them, and they are looking forward to consigning them to the dustbins of history". The fliers also praised terrorist atrocities overseas where Muslims had "inflicted the most humiliating lesson on supposed superpowers". They read: "Ally yourselves with those who work day and night to confront this war against Islam." In August last year Australia's Attorney General, Philip Ruddock had considered moves to have Hizb ut-Tahrir banned. He decided that the group was not "terrorist".

In Britain, the first head of Hizb ut-Tahrir had been the Islamist cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed, who also founded the pro-terror group Al Muhajiroun.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 7:02 PM | Comments (0)

Somalia: Grip Of Islamists Grows Tighter

On June 5, the Islamist militias announced that they had finally taken control of Mogadishu, capital of Somalia. This victory had come after fighting which had started in February between militia from The Union of Islamic Courts, led by Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed (pictured left) and the militia of a group of warlords and businessman called the Counter Terror Alliance, initially led by Bashir Rage.

By the time the Islamists claimed victory, 350 had lost their lives in the skirmishes which had begun on February 22. Many of these were civilians. The country had been in administrative chaos since 1991, when Mohamed Siad Barre had been deposed.

A "transitional" government, the 14th attempt to create a legitimate administration in Somalia, was set up in Kenya in 2004, led by president Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed (pictured bottom, right) and prime minister Ali Mohamed Gedi . Because of the violence in Mogadishu, this government set up its base in Baidoa, 155 miles northwest of the capital.

On Saturday, June 24, a new body was formed, the Supreme Council of Islamic Courts (SCIC), and its head was the cleric Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, who was one of the founders of the terror group Al-Ittihad al-Islami, which last year was placed by Britain on a list of prohibited organisations. Aweys is believed by many, including the United States, to being linked to Al Qaeda, a claim he denies.

Aweys (pictured below right) had been planning a takeover since October, arming hundreds of militia to prevent the UN-backed transitional government from gaining power. Aweys has a personal grudge against the leader of the "transitional government as president Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed had driven out Al-Ittihad al-Islami from its base in Puntland, northern Somalia, in the 1990s.

Aweys had effectively masterminded a coup within the Islamic Courts, placing himself as the elected head of a body above the existing Union of Islamic Courts. He said that he would be prepared to negotiate with the interim government, saying: "Somalia is a Muslim nation and its people are also Muslim, 100 percent. Therefore any government we agree on would be based on the holy Quran and the teachings of our Prophet Muhammad."

SInce then, as the Islamic militia have been enforcing more and more draconian rules upon the hapless populace of the territories it controls, the Islamic Courts have gradually spread in geographical and political influence.

We described on July 27 how the situation had become tense between the Islamists and the government of Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, with planned talks abandoned, then reinstated and then abandoned. By July 13, the port of Mogadishu had been handed over to Shekh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, a week after they had gained control of the airport.

There were threats from the Islamists to wage Holy War upon the neighbouring country of Ethiopia, which the Islamists claimed had sent troops into the country to fight for the transitional government. The government denied this. The Islamists marched to within 38 miles of Baidoa, but then moved back.

On Friday July 28, a Somali government minister was killed by gunmen outside a mosque in Baidoa. Abdallah Deerow Isaq was leaving after prayers when he was killed. He had been the Constitution and Federalism Minister. Reuters quoted the Information Minister, Mohamed Abdi Hayr, as saying: "It looks like an organized assassination."

A plane arrived at the newly opened Mogadishu airport that day, the third such landing since the airport was reopened. Unidentified cargo was unloaded, which many assume to have been weapons, which the government claims are coming from Eritrea. As the goods were unloaded, roads were closed, and onlookers driven away from the scene. A similar plane load had arrived on Wednesday.

According to AP, there were riots following the killing of the minister. Two days earlier, another member of the government had been shot, but had survived his injuries. Mohammed Ibrahim Mohammed was chairman of the parliamentary committee for constitutional affair. Rioters in Baidoa were calling: "We want a government that can restore law and order!"

On Saturday 29 July, a phone call announced that 25 hostages, who had been kidnapped by pirates in April, were going to be released, following the payment of $800,000. No information was given as to AP regarding the source of the ransom. The hostages comprised 8 South Koreans, 9 Indonesians, 5 Vietnamese and 3 Chinese. Their ship had been captured in international waters and then taken into Somali waters.

On 30 July, prime minister Gedi survived a no-confidence vote, brought by MPs apparently angered by his refusal to send a team to Khartoum to meet the UIC

On Wednesday August 2 CNN announced that 29 officials had left the transitional government. 18 had resigned late the previous week, five had resigned on August 1, and six more had resigned overnight.

Only 11 of these were full ministers, and the remainder were deputy ministers. One of those who resigned, Hasaan Abshir Farah, said: "The prime minister has failed to talk to the Islamic union."

The UK Independent stated that the exodus of ministers was giving power to the Islamists. Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys said the ministers were welcome to join his side. He said: "This is great step forward and we call everybody in the government to step aside. It is not the correct cabinet that fits Somali people, so they have taken the correct decision. Every government member is welcome to join the Islamists to participate in rebuilding peace in Somalia."

On August 4, the Islamists set up a film censor in Mogadishu, to decide which films could be shown, and which were to be banned.

On Monday August 7, President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed announced a plan which had been mediated by his Ethiopian allies, which would have created a smaller and more efficient cabinet, with the Prime Minister, Ali Mohamed Gedi, still in charge of the government. The scaled down government would have 31 ministers and 44 deputy ministers, a reduction on the original structure, which had 42 ministers and 80 deputies.

Since late July, a total of 43 ministers and deputies had resigned, mostly in protest at Gedi's policies, and his seeking military help from the Ethiopian government.

The following day, the proposed new cabinet plans were submitted to various clan leaders, for their approval.

On Wednesday 9 August, the Islamists made a move against the town of Beledweyne, near the Ethiopian border. This town is capital of the Hiraan region, and is 188 miles north of Mogadishu, the national capital. The town fell to the Islamists at 7 am, without a struggle. The governor of the town, Yusuf Ahmed Hagar, had been appointed by the transitional governmet. He fled across the border into Ethiopia.

Residents stated they thought that Hagar had gone to Ethiopia to seek military assistance. AFP via Yahoo, the Mail & Guardian, quoted the leader of the Islamist militia who had taken control, Yusuf Makaraan. He said: "We have full control of Beledweyne. The governor fled and we captured one battlewagon -- a pickup truck mounted (with) a machine gun -- from his fleeing forces."

The BBC who spelled the name of the town as Beletuein, said that residents approved the takeover by the Islamist militia. Strategically, the town of Beledweyne is regarded as an important victory for the Islamists. With this town under their influence, they can now move supplies from the north down to the south, unimpeded.

Earlier, there had been protests against the Islamist militia in one of the regions under their control, Galkayo. In Galkayo, which is 375 miles northeast of the capital, hundreds of people turned out with placards. The protests had been led by Islamic clerics who complained that the Islamists were too militant. Two people were injured in these protests. The militia from the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) were said to be controlling a road beside the town.

Galkayo adjoins Puntland, a semi-autonomous region, which does not support the Islamists. The UIC have sent representatives into the town to muster support for the establishment of an Islamic court in the town. Associated Press quoted from one of the demonstrators in Galkayo, who said: "We have demonstrated that Galkayo is stable. We do not need Islamic courts here."

Reuters reported that Ali Hirsi, one of the Islamists based nearby said: "Fighting can start anytime in Galkaayo, our militias are heading there." Hirsi Ali said that Abdi Awale Qaybdiid, a warlord (originally from the town) who had shown resistance to the Islamist militia in Mogadishu, had moved on Wednesday into Galkayo with dozens of battlewagons or "technicals", pick-up trucks with mounted guns. Hirsi claimed that 33 "technicals" from the Islamist side were to be deployed in the town, but this claim was denied by another Islamist, who said: "We (couldn't) care less about Abdi Qaybdiid.We have our militias in Galkaayo and plan to open an Islamic court there. We are for peace and come here to improve security. We have already removed so many checkpoints."

An article from the same day in Der Spiegel warned that Somalia was on the brink of falling to the Islamists, and becoming the first Islamic state in the Horn of Africa. It noted that the aircraft which had flown into Mogadishu the week before, ostensibly carrying weaponry, had the markings of Kazakhstan painted over. The Islamists had claimed that the aircraft had carried only sewing machines.

It quoted from Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, head of the UIC, as saying on a visit to Mogadishu: "We have a bright future ahead of us.We are cleaning up the city. Things are moving forward." He said to women present: "You are the future of the country. You are true Somalis."

Ahmed said to nearby men, carrying guns: "Stop shooting into the air. Airplanes will be landing here again soon, and we don't want to shoot them out of the sky."

Der Spiegel stated:

"Delegates routinely hurl insults and come to blows in the temporary parliament building, which is a former warehouse. The surface issue is a no-confidence vote against Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Ghedi. But the underlying dispute hinges on whether the government should ask for Ethiopian assistance in its struggle against the Islamists. Both Ghedi and the president are seen as friends of Ethiopia, which accounts for the chaos in the provisional government. One parliament session almost became an all-out brawl, while guards outside nervously fingered their guns. In the end, the police quelled the uproar by arresting a few members of parliament."

On Monday August 14, according to Mail & Guardian, Middle East Online, Nasdaq and the BBC, the Islamists announced that they had taken over two coastal towns, Eldher and Harardheere, which had been used as pirate bases. As the Islamists moved in, pirates loyal to regional warlord Abdi Mohamed Afweyne moved out.

Sheikh Said Ali of the Islamic courts said: "The Islamic courts are in full control of Haradere and we were welcomed by its inhabitants, who were forcefully ruled by pirates. The era of banditry and piracy is over. People can now live peacefully and get money by fishing and doing other businesses, but not piracy. The pirates have mistreated people in the territorial waters of Somalia and damaged our credibility."

"The actions of the pirates were unlawful, unacceptable and un-Islamic. Anybody suspected of aiding pirates or being among them will be punished according to sharia law. The pirates are enemies of Somalia as well as the Islamic courts."

We reported on October 12 on the hijacking of large ships filled with food aid intended for poor people, which had been sent to the region by the United Nations World Food Program. The International Maritime Bureau had described Somalia's piracy problem as "the most serious in the world". It reports that there have been 21 incidents off the Somali coast between March 15 and October last year, making it as dangerous a stretch of water for piracy as the infamous Strait of Malacca in the Far East. By August this year, the figure had risen to 41.

On March 30 this year, an oil tanker was hijacked. In April, a 351-tonne South Korean tuna fishing vessel, the Dongwon-ho, was hijacked, and was only released in July after the payment of $800,000.

On Tuesday 15 August, the UN Integrated Regional Information Networks announced that the Islamists and the transtitional government had finally agreed to sit together in talks held in Khartoum, brokered by the Arab League. Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed announced: "We have decided to participate in the talks in the interest of the people." The last meeting had taken place on June 22, but July talks were abandoned as trust between the two sides deteriorated.

On the same day, Reuters via Mail & Guardian announced that in the north of Somalia, authorities loyal to the transitional government were hunting down clerics who were trying to impose Sharia rule in Puntland, the former domain of President Abdullahi Yusuf.

An Islamist, Sheikh Ahmed Shanle, had announced the formation of a sharia court in Las Anood district in Puntland on Sunday (Aug 13). A police officer from Puntland, Abdullahi Jama told the press: "The sheikh and his group escaped, but the police will catch and bring them to justice."

On Monday, two journalists who had announced the establishment of the Islamic Court were arrested, but later freed. Again on Monday, in Bossaso, Puntland's main port, police jailed an Islamist cleric and 10 of his supporters for trying to set up a sharia court.

As a result of the debacles, the Islamic Courts announced that they would now no longer partake in the talks in Khartoum. Samir Hosni, a negotiator for the Arab League, said: "We are not happy with the new position of the Islamic courts. They are the only side responsible for postponing the negotiations."

Also on Tuesday, according to Sudan Tribune, the Islamist militia sent a contingent to advance on the town of Buur Hakaba, in a rerun of a move they had made on 19 July.

The Islamists claimed that they had no intention of advancing on the nearby town of Baidoa, seat of the transitional government.

Yesterday, the BBC reported that the Islamists denied that they had taken control of another town, a port on Somalia's central coastline called Hobyo. Hobyo is close to the region of Puntland. Shabelle News had reported that Islamist militia on "technicals" had entered the town. An Islamic official said anonymously that: "We did not capture it but we reached the people of Hobyo to bring them our message of peace." Sheikh Hassan Dihir Aweys denied there had been a takeover. VOA News appears to believe that the Islamists have taken control of the town.

Also yesterday. SomaliNet reported that the Islamists have condemned neighbouring countries for denying the rights of Somali refugees. There were reports of people being deported from other countries, and arriving on planes bound for Mogadishu.

Sheikh Abdirahin Ali Mudey, head of information of the Supreme Council of Islamic Courts, said: "They are Somali nationals and are under investigation over why they were deported to Somalia. Many people deported from outside countries particular from western countries were on board latest flights to Mogadishu."

"The Islamic Courts are launching a big operation on securing the lost rights of the Somali refugees."

Also yesterday, news came from AFP via South Africa Sunday Times that the Islamist gunmen were in future to be issued with their own recognisable uniforms, according to a source at the Supreme Council of Islamic Courts (SCIC). Ali Mudey said: "Uniformed troops will be deployed in Mogadishu and they will take care of security. If people feel any threats they should go to these troops. The media should not call the Islamic court fighters as 'militia' any longer. You should describe them as the Islamic court 'troops' or 'forces' if you like, but definitely not 'militia'."

But also on Wednesday, news came from South Africa's Independent that in Mogadishu, seven men were publicly given 40 lashes, accused of selling, or taking marijuana. The incident took place at the Konis Stadium. The marijuana was incinerated in front of the crowd.

Hassan Muhuyadiin, one of those who was whipped, said: "I did not commit any crime. I was just arrested and punished without any evidence."

The same report states that on late Tuesday evening, Islamist militia entered a makeshift video hall where people were watching an Indian film. An eyewitness said: "The militiamen entered the building with long lashes in hands, they turned off the Indian film we were watching and started beating everyone, then everything turned chaotic."

The owner of the video hall, Abdulqadir Garyabis, said that the militia justified beating up the clientele because they were enforcing an edict which ruled such entertainment spots should be closed by 9 pm each evening.

Abdirahman Janaqaw, deputy leader of the SCIC sais that video halls "are the main source of drugs, crime and the spread of Aids."

Associated Press via Santa Barbara NewsPress reported on the whippings of the seven men. Sheik Farah Ali Hussein told the crowd at the stadium: "This punishment is in accordance with the Islamic law. Thank God, we can implement Islamic law in parts of the country freely and we hope we shall be able to do so throughout the country."

On July 9 we reported that in the public square of Jowhar, teenagers were given 40 lashes, accused of similar offenses.

A report from the Mail and Guardian claimed that many government soldiers have been defecting to the Islamists' side. Mohamed Ali Bilal, chairperson of al-Bayan Islamic court in Mogadishu said that at least 100 government soldiers had swapped sides. They had crossed into Islamist territory from Baidoa overnight, beinging with them seven battlewagons or "technicals".

He told AFP: "The militiamen communicated with al-Bayan Islamic court in Mogadishu and said they wanted to join our holy effort to bring peace to the Somali people. They are ideologically uncomfortable with the government and also claim to have been mistreated."

This has been a continuation of an article we produced here on July 21.

The saga continues.....

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 5:51 PM | Comments (1)

Denmark: Muslim On Terror Charges

News from Copenhagen Post and the BBC states that a Danish Muslim and al Qaeda supporter will be the first person to be tried under Denmark's anti-terror laws, which were introduced in 2002 following the events of 9/11.

Yesterday, the public prosecutor's office announced that Said Mansour (pictured) will be charged for inciting terrorism, following approval from Lebe Espersen, the Danish justice minister. He will be tried for making and distributing material glorifying jihad against the West. If he is found guilty, he could face six years in prison.

45-year old Mansour has said that he is not guilty.

He has been under investigation since 2004, and was arrested on Thursday September 8 last year. His home in the Copenhagen suburb of Brønshøj was searched, and inside were found videos, CDs and other material promoting jihad. Since then, other evidence has emerged that Moroccan-born Mansour was distributing bomb-making manuals. He would sell his CDs at a flea market in Copenhagen.

In an August 2005 interviews, Mansour was unapologetic about downloading videos from the internet of beheadings and speeches by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and burning them onto CDs for distribution. He claimed Muslims had a right to kill Americans in Iraq because: "This is war, it's not a picnic."

Mansour had arrived in Denmark in 1983 to be with his sister, who had married a Danish national. In 1984 Mansour married a Danish national, a teacher, and now he and his wife have four children who attend public schools. At the time of his arrest, Mansour was unemployed, and claiming $1,800 a month from the Danish taxpayers.

Mansour made no secret of his associations with terrorists. He said he had been a close friend of Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, who was convicted of plotting the attack upon the World Trade Center on 26 February, 1993. According to Mansour, and backed up by police, the blind sheikh stayed at his home in December 1990 and May 1991.

Mansour also claimed to be an associate of Abu Qatada, the cleric who is detention in Britain fighting extradition to his native Jordan, where he has been convicted of several bomb attacks. Abu Qatada has been described as "Al Qaeda's ambassador in Europe". He was also a friend of Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas who is currently on a 12 year sentence in Spain for belonging to a terrorist organisation (Al Qaeda).

At his interview prior to his arrest, he claimed that the Danish authorities were intending to bring charges against him to appease the Americans, to show they too were against terrorism.

After the arrest, his lawyer,Claus Bergsoe, said Mansour's freedom of speech had been violated.

In an earlier interview with a Danish newspaper, from March 2003, Mansour had described the 9/11 attacks as "a benign kind of terrorism (as) opposed to the malign kind that the United States for so long had carried out against the Muslim world."

Material on his CDs had included Chechens decapitating and shooting Russian soldiers, the beheading of journalist Daniel Pearl in Pakistan, which were shown to Copenhagen City Court at a bail hearing. The CD-ROMs bore the logo of his publishing company, Al Nur (light) Islamic Information. He also distributed a radical magzine called Al Ansar.

The hearing was told that Danish intelligence personnel claimed he had contacts with Ayman al-Zawahri, the deputy leader of Al Qaeda.

In 2003, Mansour was sentenced to three months' prison for possessing stolen goods and having an illegal weapon.

Mansour lost his September bail hearing, and has been remanded in custody ever since. There was an unsuccessful attempt to charge him under terror laws in 2004, after he had been on a ferry from Copenhagen to Oslo, where he took pictures of certain facilities.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 3:09 PM | Comments (2)

Europe: Interior Ministers Want European Islam

If you say you want an "European Islam", are you not saying, by implication, that there is something wrong with Islam proper? And if there is something wrong with Islam proper, shouldn't you drop the hypocrisy of trying to modify Islam, and fight it instead? EU Wants European Islam

LONDON - Getting together to tackle the common threat of terrorism and improve intelligence flows, European Union interior ministers called for a European Islam and asked European Muslims to join other elements of society in fighting terror.

"We do want a European Islam," European Commission Vice-President and Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini told a press conference following the meeting, Reuters reported.

Frattini proposed training imams and blocking of Internet websites deemed to be inciting terrorism.

"That is very important not only to show to the Muslim communities that we fully respect other religions, other faiths, but we also want them to respect national laws, European laws and fundamental rights, and first of all right to live," he said.[...]

Posted by Ruy Diaz at 2:36 PM | Comments (0)

Internet: Liquid Explosives Recipes Available On Muslim Websites

We discussed on August 11 the similarities of the recent alleged plot to bring down at least nine aircraft using liquid explosives to an earlier plot. The current plot which was announced on August 10 (related to a UK surveillance called Operation Overt, carried out with the US and Pakistan) suggested that liquid explosives would be carried on board planes. Once on board, the suicide attackers would then combine ingredients with detonators, which were to be disguised in simple electronic devices, such as mobile phones, MP3 players, etc.

The plot has echoes of one called Operation Bojinka, which had been devised by Ramzi Yousef, the man who drove explosives into the World Trade Center on February 26,1993. The plot was found in a booklet, bearing his fingerprints in an apartment in Manila in the Philippines in January 1995. Apparently in the month previously, Ramzi Yousef had done a trial run, boarding a two-stage flight where he assembled the necessary components and left them under a seat. He disembarked when the plane landed, and other passengers got on for the second leg of the journey. The bomb went off, killing a Japanese businessman and injuring 10 others. Ramzi Yousef (by then a member of Al Qaeda) had intended to have 11 planes attacked in this way.

Disturbing news now comes from Jamestown.org, in which the recipes for manufacturing such liquid explosives are being carried on jihadist websites.

Other explosives manuals can be found on sites such as kataebaqsa, a Palestinian jihadist site, organ of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, in Arabic. The data on this site is amassed in a file called "The Preparation Encyclopedia—All the Mujahid Needs."

Jamestown lists the various explosive recipes available on this site, and acknowledges that most of the components are highly volatile and dangerous.

The article also states that the recipe for the substance which was used by Richard Reid in his failed "shoe-bomb", triacetone triperoxide, was available on the web forum http://www.bramjnet.com. Fortunately, since the article was released by Jamestown.org, the site has been suspended by its server. This site also gave details on how to make detonators from this substance. TATP was used by the 7/7 bombers last year, manufactured in a bath in a council housing block in Alexandra Grove, Leeds, from substances available on any high street.

As they made the explosive, the noxious fumes were so strong that the bombers had to use facemasks and shower caps, while the windows were open. Their hair had begun to bleach, and the fumes caused the leaves on trees outside the bathroom window to shrivel and die.

An article from Janes security describes how the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology has studied how it causes its reaction. Every molecule of TATP forms four molecules of gas, ozone and acetone, and these do not react with each other. As all of the TATP becomes gas, it creates extreme pressure, and blasts outward at a rate of 5250 meters per second.

As the gases in TATP do react with each other, there is no flame, which led one 7/7 victim, Katie Benton from Tennessee, to say: "There was no fireball - it was just so not Hollywood. They really have no idea what a bomb is like..."

The TATP as used by the 7/7 bombers was in a solid crystalline state. But it was in a liquid state while being prepared.

The liquid explosive could have been a type of nitroglycerine, stabilised with a type of cotton. We wrote on November 24 of the case of an Algerian, Abbas Boutrab, who was found guilty in a Belfast court of possessing information "for a purpose connected with the commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism." He had downloaded information for a small bomb from the internet. Whether this was in a liquid or solid state is not specified.

However, as we wrote then: An FBI explosives expert, Donald Sachtleben gave evidence for the prosecution during the trial. He said he had built and detonated three bombs following the method on Boutrab's disks. The mixture could have been disguised in a bottle of baby powder, and could easily be detonated using the battery from a CD player.

He claimed "a person of average intelligence and average mechanical skills" could create the bomb, which "would be likely to cause significant damage to the aircraft and cause injury or death." In a pressurised cabin at high altitude, it would "more than likely...cause catastrophic failure".

The website of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade is still functional and online.

On November 6 last year, the Sunday Times reported that another Islamist web forum, called Al Firdaws or Paradise contained detailed instructions for making bombs. The site had posted on October 6 a manual which detailed in 80 pages how to make bomb materials in kitchens. Extravagantly, the manual also included a description of how to make a nuclear device from enriched uranium, which would be impossible to achieve for a layman. The website Al Firdaws is still online.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 12:52 AM | Comments (1)

August 16, 2006

UK: Welsh Objection To Islamist's Visit

The famous preacher on Islam, Dr Zakir Naik (pictured left), will be due speak publicly in Cardiff this Saturday (19 August), at the St David's Hall. The Western Mail reports that a Welsh MP, David Davies of Monmouth, has voiced strong objections to the arrival of the Islamist showman.

Davies states: "Cardiff County Council ought to step in immediately to prevent this hate-monger from having a platform for his obnoxious views. If a British Nazi party wanted to promulgate the annihilation of ethnic minorities, I can't imagine they would be given a public platform. Here is a man who believes people who change their religious beliefs should face the death penalty. Some of the rest of his views are, I think, arguably in breach of various laws aimed at keeping public order."

"The vast majority of moderate British Muslims will, I am sure, find his views as appalling as I do. Mainstream Muslims need people to help them stand up against the kind of repression this man seeks to promote, especially Muslim women."

David Davies is right that Dr Zakir Naik's views are appalling, but wrong on Muslim opinion. Naik is popular, and his books, DVDs and audiocassettes are bestsellers in Islamic bookstores across Britain.

Naik was born in October 1965, and is based in Mumbai, India. He trained as a doctor. He is the founder of the Islamic Research Foundation. According to Wikipedia he does believe in punishing those who leave Islam with death. He supports women wearing the hijab or Muslim headscarf. He believes that in Islamic law, a woman's testimony is worth half that of a man.

Naik supports polygamy, saying it benefits men and women, and states that India would be better off if Hindus and Muslims were all subjected to sharia law, saying: "Muslims in India would prefer the Islamic criminal law to be implemented on all Indians since it is the most practical."

One of Naik's strongest critics is Ali Sina, founder of Faith Freedom International, who regards Naik as a cheap showman. Naik is certainly a showman, but he is not cheap. It will cost £15 ($28.40) for an adult to view Naik at St David's Hall on Saturday, and £10 ($19) for a child. The event is a conference, entitled "Educating the Educators". It is sponsored by the Al-Khair Foundation, based in Croydon, south London.

The show has already been seen in Glasgow, Birmingham, Batley, and Harrow. Tomorrow it will be at Croydon, and on Monday it will end at Brighton. The proceeds will be used to fund an Islamic school. From the images on the poster for the event, I can identify the anti-semite from the Muslim Association of Britain, Azzam al-Tamimi who has said that he would like to be a suicide bomber against Israelis. Perhaps David Davies, MP for Monmouth, should have focused his attentions on al-Tamimi, who certainly supports terrorism.

One of Naik's silliest statements concerns his belief that a person is, literally, what he or she eats: "The pig is the most shameless animal on the face of the earth. It is the only animal that invites its friends to have sex with its mate. In America, most people consume pork. Many times after dance parties, they have swapping of wives; many say "you sleep with my wife and I will sleep with your wife." If you eat pigs then you behave like pigs"

Cardiff County Council have said: "This event was booked as part of a UK-wide tour which aims to raise the consciousness of the Muslim community about the importance of education. The council has made further inquiries into the nature of the conference and as things stand we find no reason to suspect that it will be used as a platform to espouse extremist views. The council is also satisfied that it will not constitute a threat to public security, but we will continue to monitor the situation with South Wales Police."

Saleem Kidwai, who is Secretary Genral of the Muslim Council of Wales denies that Naik is an extremist. He states: "I don't think he has said anything contradictory to our faith. He has a very good knowledge of the Bible, Koran and other religions."

The Muslim Council of Wales is one of the bodies that signed the infamous letter which threatened that if the UK government did not change its foreign policies to satisfy British Muslims (a mere 3% of the demographic) then there would be more instances of terrorism.

Naik has given 600 public talks in various countries, states the Islamic Research Foundation, which include U.S.A., Canada, U.K., Saudi Arabia, U.A.E., Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, South Africa, Mauritius, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, Hongkong, Thailand and Guyana.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 6:59 PM | Comments (2)

UK: The Mosque Sermons That Attracted Terror Suspects

There is a report in today's Sun which I believe carries a glaring error, as it appears to state that the East London Mosque in Whitechapel, whose chairman Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari is also the head of the Muslim Council for Britain, hosted the Jamaican convert preacher, Abdullah al-Faisal, the subject of a WR report..

Faisal, who was convicted on 24 February 2003 (later sentenced to nine years' jail, reduced on appeal to seven), for three charges of racial incitement and three of "soliciting murder" of Jews, Americans and Hindus, did live in east London, in Stratford. He was a regular imam at a mosque in Brixton, but travelled the country giving sermons.

The Sun states that one of the suspects in Operation Overt, the investigation into an air terror plot which could have led to suicide bombers destroying US-bound planes, would travel from his home in High Wycombe every Sunday to see the sermons of Faisal, at "the East London Mosque in Whitechapel every Sunday."

The suspect is car salesman Shazad Khuram Ali, and while I do not doubt that he traveled to an east London mosque, I have my doubts if it is the one whose chairman is Dr Bari, whose address is 46-92, Whitechapel Road. The mosque may have been the Masjid-e-Umer in Walthamstow but not the one in Whitechapel. If the Sun is correct in this detail, it would be political dynamite, and cast doubt on the mosque's press release, which states: "No messages of intolerance or hate are ever preached from the mosque. Our pulpit is a place for the expression of positive values, in line with the mosque's strong commitment to community cohesion. "

But the Sun is probably correct in its other details. We mentioned yesterday in an article on 26-year old Assad Sarwar, another High Wycombe suspect, that promotional literature from Abdullah al-Faisal began to be left at a local mosque in High Wycombe.

A friend of 27-year old Shahzad Khuram Ali said that the suspect would travel to Faisal's sermons "most Sundays."

Another suspect from High Wycombe is 29-year old Waseem Kayani, who acted as a volunteer driver for Abu Hamza, whom he had met at the Old Bailey trial of Abdullah el-Faisal.

The sermons of Abdullah al-Faisal, who was born Trevor William Forrest in Jamaica, were inspired by his religious education in Wahhabi Saudi Arabia. Saudi religious authorities paid for him to come to Britain in 1991, where he became imam of Brixton mosque. He lived off state benefits. He had said to police that he had been sent to Britain by Sheikh Rajhi, apparently one of the members of the Al-Rajhi family in Saudi Arabia, often accused of supporting international terrorism.

A friend of Hamza, some of those who attended the former's sermons would also attend those of Faisal. One such person was Zacarias Moussaoui, the member of the 9/11 cell, who visited the Brixton Mosque and also the Finsbury Park Mosque where Hamza had been the imam. Another visitor at both mosques was Richard Reid, the shoe bomber.

Faisal would be expelled from the Brixton mosque, as Hamza would be expelled from the Finsbury Park mosque, and both were eventually convicted on near-identical charges.

In May this year, newly-appointed Home Secretary John Reid told the House of Commons that one of the four suicide bombers of 7/7, Jermaine Lindsay, had been "strongly influenced" by the sermons of Abdullah al-Faisal.

There was a connection with other 7/7 bombers. The Sunday Times reported that Mohammed Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer had attended the Al-Madina Masjid mosque in Beeston. The imam of this mosque, Hamid Ali, claimed that the 7/7 bombers were al-Faisal's "children". Faisal actually preached at this mosque on three separate occasions.

Abdullah al-Faisal's sermons were placed on audiocassette and DVD by Amar Iqbal, an Islamist from Ashton-Under-Lyne near Manchester. These sermons were sold at Islamic bookshops around the country. Jermaine Lindsay had some of these in his home, which he would regularly listen to.

The funding of both Hamza and Faisal are intriguing. State benefits do not allow for easy travel up and down the country, yet during his trial the judge, Peter Beaumont, received a letter posted in Scotland, in which he was offered £50,000 ($94,785) to cancel the case.

Faisal even urged his followers to rob banks to gain funds, according to AKI, quoted on Robert Spencer's Jihad Watch: "Do you, like many, cry because you are poor? If so, wage jihad! Look at all the money stashed away in Swiss banks. There's bank in Brunei where King Fahd has deposited 30 million dollars. If you are suffering from poverty, wage jihad and see the money pour into your hands."

In other taped sermons, he said that Mother Theresa and members of the Royal Family would burn in Hell. He says in a tape called "Judgement Day" that Princess Diana and Prince Philip would be "tossed into the hellfire to abide forever". In another entitled "Rules of Jihad" he said: "You have to learn how to shoot. You have to learn how to fly planes, drive tanks and you have to learn how to load your guns and to use missiles."

He said it was acceptable for Jews, Americans and Hindus to be murdered with chemical weapons. He advised that: "Even if you are hit by a cruise missile the pain will feel like a mosquito bite".

His hatred of America was open. He said of Clinton: "He killed innocent Muslims because he wanted to save his presidency after he was disgraced at home, and he has the audacity to say when he bombed two Muslim countries that it wasn't an attack on Islam. What Muslim on earth would believe that?"

"You all have to strike against America anywhere in the world you are. Is that clear? You have to learn how to shoot, to fly planes, to drive tanks and you have to learn how to load your guns and to use missiles."

On Hindus, he claimed: "You can use chemical weapons to exterminate the non-believer. If you have cockroaches in your house you can spray them, yes with chemicals, chemicals. Who has more dignity, the cockroach or the unbeliever? If you spray the cockroach, spray the Hindu."

"There are two religions in the world today, the right one and the wrong one - Islam versus the rest of the world."

On terrorism, he said: "Liberty can never be achieved by democracy. The way forward can never be the ballot; the way forward is the bullet. Islam was spread by the sword, today it has got to be spread by the Kalashnikov."

And justifying war against the infidel, he said: "When you have a legitimate target you strike at it. If women and children die they are collateral damage"

And yet he described himself thus: "I am a dove, not a hawk."

After his conviction, his Pakistani-born and burka-wearing wife, Zubaida Khan, tried to justify her husband's sermons in their "true" context. She said: "When he said, 'If you see a Hindu walking down the road you are allowed to kill him and take his money', he was talking about a war-like situation such as the problems between Muslims and Hindus in Kashmir."

She added: "When he said, 'How wonderful it is to kill a kaffir, he was quoting from holy scriptures. He is a man of God, a good father, and a very good husband. If he were a terrorist, he would not have chosen to speak in public."

Al-Faisal preached at Manchester, Worthing, Bournemouth, Cardiff, Swansea, and Birmingham, among other venues. His sermons are full of incitement to hate. At his trial, the court heard how he promised to his followers, some merely schoolboys, that those who killed unbelievers in a holy war would receive 72 virgins as their reward.

Though there was no proof that Faisal was an active Al Qaeda member, he certainly knew James Ujaama, who has been said to be a member.

When he was convicted, there were gasps of surprise from his supporters in the gallery. Outside the court a supporter, Muhammed Abdul-Mutakabbir said: "This is an injustice. Because Sheikh El-Faisal has been convicted, so has the Koran." During the trial, prosecutor David Parry said that Faisal was a "fanatic and extremist" who had tried to exonerate himself by stating that the Koran was on trial.

The tapes and DVDs of Al-Faisal's sermons are easy to copy. Terrorism always starts with an idea, a concept. Despite the protestations of many Muslim so-called "leaders" that terrorism is a reaction to government policy, it is still required for there to be an initial idea, a "philosophical" justification for terrorism.

The actions of Faisal and Hamza were catalysts for the radicalizing of Britain's young Muslim population. The sad truth is that Britain's police and intelligence services did nothing to stop these preachers of hate until long after their poisonous preachings had affected the minds of a generation. In the case of Hamza's investigation, US and French intelligence officials were astounded at the reluctance of British security to clamp down on Hamza. It appeared that they believed that by allowing the sermons at Finsbury Park Mosque to continue, they could easily monitor the comings and goings of Hamza's associates.

But preaching involves the transmission of ideas. While nothing was done to prevent them, the ideas spread by Hamza and Faisal spread like a contagion, and now we are finding in reports of 9/11's Moussaoui, the shoe bomber Richard Reid, the 7/7 bombers and now the current crop of suspects who apparently wished to create "murder on an unimaginable scale", that the sermons and teachings of Abdullah al-Faisal are still having their influence.

Keyword: Abdullah el-Faisal

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 5:23 PM | Comments (2)

Book Review: The Dhimmi

In his introduction to a 2001 edition of Mein Kampf, Abraham Foxman speaks of the need to read the 'Bible of National Socialism' in the spirit of remembering, so that we'll be able to build a brighter future for our children. Mr. Foxman illustrates this need with an example:

Recently the Taliban regime in Afghanistan ordered all Hindus to wear identifying badges. International alarms sounded; we remembered the yellow stars that Nazis forced on the Jews more than fifty years ago, when we saw that such badges helped identify the wearer as "the other;" a necessary precursor to more significant persecution. The world took not of the Taliban's efforts and is intently watching that troubled regime.

More recently, the Islamic Republic of Iran's leadership discussed whether to make non-Muslims wear distinctive clothing. The world 'took note' again, and comparisons were drawn between Iran and Nazi Germany.

Reading Bat Yeor's The Dhimmi: Jews & Christians Under Islam (p.47), however, one learns the following: "In the dhimma [pact of protection--RD] granted to Hira (Iraq) in 633, a specific clause was introduced dealing with the principle of a vestmental distinction between Muslims and non-Muslims."

Six-hundred and thirty-three A.D.? Say it isn't so. Only one year after the death of Islam's prophet, the practice of making subject peoples wear distinctive clothing was introduced. The practice preceded Nazi yellow stars by a full 1,300 years.

The Dhimmi has a knack for such facts: did you know, for example (document 94), that the great Maimonides wrote about the subjugation of Jews under Islam that "Never did a nation molest, degrade, debase and hate us as much as they...?" But beyond interesting facts a portrait of the Dhimmies, the forgotten and oppressed of Islam is re-captured: the persecuted, humiliated and oppressed peoples whose very cultures were twisted, sometimes destroyed, under the relentless Islamic onslaught.

Bat Yeor's work is irrefutable; her historical facts have only been countered with propaganda. In a more just world her later works would not have been "controversial" but rather updates and complements to her earlier work. The Dhimmi could then be discarded as an outdated book.

And thus, in a strange twist, the ideologically-motivated rejection of The Dhimmi keeps it relevant. Because it is not simple a ground-breaking work of historical research; it is also a warning for those of us who wish to beat back Islamic expansionism and preserve our liberty. Because if we lose, the fate of the Dhimmies will be our fate.

Posted by Ruy Diaz at 4:19 PM | Comments (0)

Australia: Jailed Aborigines Converting To Radical Islam

A report from the Australian states that Aborigines currently being detained in Australia's prisons are being converted to radical Islam during their detention.

Today, federal police had warned that the problems of criminals who convert whilst in prison could become "a significant issue in the future".

Some serious criminals in maximum-security prisons, including Aborigines, have already converted to Wahhabism. Their conversions came via radical clerics or from other inmates.

Rocky Davis, who heads the Aboriginal Youth Centre in Redfern, Sydney, said that on his visits to jails, he knows of about 40 Aborigine prisoners whom he believed had converted to Wahhabism.

40-year old Davis, who had been a former prisoner who became a convert himself in the 1990s, who was known as Shaheed Malik, also runs the Koori Muslim Association.He warned that Aboriginal Muslim converts were vulnerable to the attentions of radical Islam.

He said: "I've been to a few talks where imams have talked about jihad and violence and oppression and it's very, very simple to convince someone that's already oppressed to become an oppressor. If you're disenfranchised and you're oppressed and you've got no economy and you've always been discriminated against, you're the most likely to become a terrorist, you're the most likely to become a fanatic - and that's the thing that I have to worry about because my people are disenfranchised, they're oppressed."

He added "Wahabi clerics, they're already in prison recruiting. Most of the Muslims in prison now are Wahabi ... including the Aboriginals."

In Britain, France and the US, prisons are a recruiting ground for radical forms of Islam. The Australian Federal Police are aware of the potential problem. A spokeswoman said that "the experiences overseas show that there is a potential that it will become a significant issue in the future."

In a separate article in the Australian, members of John Howard's advisory board, the Muslim Community Reference Group, warned that there was a need to prevent people converting to Islam for the wrong reasons.

Yasser Soliman of the group said: "There's been cases where extremists from beforehand have converted to Islam, thinking that Islam offers them some outlet to their extremism. They could be Jewish-haters, they could be people who are militant to begin with, they could have all sorts of agendas and they'll be looking to fulfil those views within Islam."

The MCRG has compiled a 32-page report, in which it is recommended that there should be an "orientation pack for converts. This would give details of recommended Muslim mentors.

Michael Burge, a psychologist from Melbourne, said people from an abusive background were "prime pickings for cults and (religions) of any kind".

He said: "There's a natural psychological tendency for people who are in pain and strife to search for answers and if the institution or the family, the body that should be nurturing their upbringing, hasn't been what it should be ... they can become very disillusioned with society."

Ameer Ali, chairman of the MCRG, said that the danger of radicalizing of convert prisoners came from the fact that the prisoners had no other people as sources of information about Islam. He said: "They are susceptible because they are only listening to one source of information. We should be concerned about it."

One cleric from Sydney, Khalil Shami, who is authorised by the New South Wales Corrective Services to visit jails, said he was unaware of any radical clerics who were converting prisoners.

He said that the individuals who were regarded as having an antisocial outlook were always attended to by clerics while there was security surveillance.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 2:32 PM | Comments (0)

Iraq: Couple Murdered for Being HIV Positive; Islam Absolved

The servants of Allah do some religious "cleansing": IRAQ: HIV-positive couple murdered

BAGHDAD, 9 August (IRIN) - First came the phone call - a man who accused Farid Abbas of carrying "an indecent disease" and telling him that he'd be killed "for the safety of the country".

Two days later, 42-year-old Abbas, who had been HIV-positive for nine years, was gunned down on the street.

"Witnesses said that while the man was shooting him from the window of a car, he was shouting loudly, 'Death to all people who carry diseases acquired from indecent methods against Islamic beliefs'," said Abbas's sister, who asked that her name not be used, for security reasons.

Islam, Religion of Mass Murder.

That was not the end of the tragedy. On 30 July, Abbas's wife Hania Omar, 38, who also was HIV-positive, was leaving home to pick up their 11-year-old son from school when another drive-by assailant shot her dead.

The man dropped a letter which said, "This is the price to pay for a Muslim woman who is willing to sleep with a dirty man whose blood is infected with the devil's impurity." The police shrugged off the deaths as "sectarian violence".

Although sad, it should be expected that the police in an Islamic country would not blame Islam; heck, I'm surprised they blamed "sectarian violence" instead of blaming the infidels. Surely Irin News would set the record straight....

...Abbas and his wife were both hemophiliacs, and were infected with HIV from contaminated blood in the late 1980s.

In the conservative, religious environment of Iraq, the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and the disease it causes, AIDS, are associated with homosexuality, sex outside of marriage, and drug use - all considered religious offences.

Sure, that's a good start. A little apologetic, and it blames "conservatism" (Tory MP's don't advocate gunning down HIV-infected couples) instead of Islamic teachings such as Sunan Abu Dawud, Book 38, Number 4447: "[...]The Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) said: If you find anyone doing as Lot's people did, kill the one who does it, and the one to whom it is done." But that's at least in the neighborhood of truth. But then there is this:

There is little awareness of the fact that the virus can be contracted via contaminated blood transfusions.

Attitudes toward HIV and AIDS are also holdovers from the rule of Saddam Hussein. At that time, people who were discovered to be HIV-positive were virtually imprisoned in a special hospital, along with immediate relatives.

Holdover from the rule of Saddam Hussein? Fidel Castro's regime, too, imprisoned HIV-positive patients in 'virtual prisons', but for some odd reason HIV-positive couples are not murdered in Cuba. The desire to absolve Islam runs deep in the mind of Western dhimmis such as those found in IRIN News.

Posted by Ruy Diaz at 1:31 PM | Comments (0)

Middle East: Al Qaeda Group Calls For Media Jihad

The Global Islamic Media Front (al-Jabhah al-'ilamiyah al-islamiyah al-'alamiyah) is regarded as the official mouthpiece of Al Qaeda. A year ago, it served more to disseminate rough and ready videos, and news items regarding items it wished to place into the public domain. It was used last August to announce on various websites that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had become the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, for example.

But in October last year, the group went public with requests for people with media skills. The GIMF said that it would "follow up with members interested in joining and contact them via email", though no contact address was given. In September, Middle East Online stated that the group was a derivative of the "Global Front for Fighting Jews and Christians", which had been set up by Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan in 1998.

By September last year, GIMF had already produced 350 documents, including grainy videos of mujahideen attacks, but was already starting to produce small "features".

Yasser al-Sirri, of the Islamic Observatory, based in London, said then: "With the 'war on terror' continuing, Al-Qaeda can no longer find the space to meet, set up camps and train members, so it established a new 'command headquarters' on the Internet to spread fear among its adversaries and boost its men's morale."

Jason Burke, a UK terror expert said: "The terrorists have become producers and film directors, and video cameras have become their most potent weapon."

The drive to recruit video production staff was something I treated facetiously in October, but even then, the videos coming from GIMF were increasing in sophistication. An example can be found from the video of the 7/7 bomber Mohammed Sidique Khan, fragments of which can be found here. Already, compositing techniques and animated backgrounds were being used to enhance the visual appeal of the video, even if the results were a little "art school student" in their style.

But the videos recently showing Ayman al-Zawahiri, the second in command at Al Qaeda are no longer fuzzy images of someone who looks like he may be in a cave. His appearance on the video of Shehzad Tanweer, the suicide bomber, released on the eve of the 7/7 bombings in which Tanweer played the most deadly role of the four bombers, is professional. Zawahiri looks as if he is in a professional TV studio, and lighting and presentation is designed to give the impression he is in a mainstream news broadcast facility, rather than hiding away in some hinterland of civilization.

The video also featured Adam Yahiye Gadahn (pictured), speaking clearly in understandable English of the jihad against the west. Gadahn, whose aliases include Abu Suhayb Al-Amriki, Abu Suhayb, Yihya Majadin Adams, Adam Pearlman, Yayah and Azzam al-Amriki, was born in the US on September 1, 1978, to a Jewish father and Catholic mother. He became a convert to Islam while attending the Islamic Society of Orange County mosque in Garden Grove, California. He was eventually banned from the mosque after slapping the imam, Haitham Bundakji, around the face. In 2004 he had first appeared on an Al Qaeda video, wrapped up to avoid identification, threatening America.

Gadahn, who shows his face openly now, is now believed to be al-Qaeda's propaganda director.

Now, according to the SITE Institute, the Global Islamic Media Front has made another announcement, requesting assistance in its cause from media specialists. The announcement was made to internet forums on Monday (August 14), and urged people to translate statements into English and disseminate them.

There is a need to counteract the media organisations such as al-Arabiya and al-Hurra, which were "falsifying true things", the statement said. "People of jihad have to create a media war that goes parallel to the military war. They should not be short on anything because we see the effect the media has on the nation and people in supporting or denouncing it."

The GIMF is encouraging people to become proficient in the English language and to develop writing skills. It advises Muslims to send out material to US newspapers, TV stations, and also to writers such as Thomas Friedman, Samuel Huntington, and research groups such as the RAND corporation.

Harvard Professor and political scientist Samuel P Huntington coined the phrase "Clash of Civilizations" in 1993 in an article in Foreign Affairs but it is doubtful if there is anything remarkable that an al Qaeda supporter can present to a 79-year old professor that will change his outlook or his texts.

Thomas L. Friedman is a 53-year old Pullitzer prize-winning writer, a columnist on the rather leftist New York Times. He wrote "From Beirut to Jerusalem", Lexus, and The Olive Tree.

Perhaps because Friedman appears to understand the mindset of the current Muslim potential jihadist, Al Qaeda have seen him as a symbol of the sort of person to reach, as if he cannot make up his own mind, and find out his own information. Last Wednesday, he wrote in the New York Times: "Young Israelis dream of being inventors, and their role models are the Israeli innovators who made it to the Nasdaq. Hezbollah youth dream of being martyrs, and their role models are Islamic militants who made it to the Next World."

The announcement from GIMF is not a recruitment drive, but an exhortation for all Muslims to engage with the West, and to engage with forums on the internet. It already appears that some Muslims have begun to take on board the need to counter the supposed "ignorance" which many Westerners have about Islam and are trying to get participation in debate. Even our humble site has been targeted for a circular letter from the Muslim Brotherhood, from a gentleman calling himself Fared Mohammed, who writes:

"Ikhwanweb does not censor any articles or comments but has the right only to remove any inappropriate words that defy public taste. Ikhwanweb is not a news website, although we report news that matter to the Muslim Brotherhood's cause. Our main misson is to present the Muslim Brotherhood vision right from the source and rebut misonceptions about the movement in western societies. We value debate on the issues and we welcome constructive criticism."

I expect other sites which deal with Islam from a critical standpoint will be receiving similar letters soon. If the debates are constructive and intelligent, I cannot see the desire to engage with the West as being too bad. For too long, the voices of Muslim representatives, such as those at CAIR, MAB or MCB have not been voices of great intelligence nor of moral forthrightness. It would be interesting to hear other voices.

Previous direct messages from GIMF have concerned themselves with describing how a Mujahid should prepare for jihad, or making death threats against world leaders. In a media battle, the videos of killings and decapitations, such as those produced by Al Qaeda in Iraq may have an "inspiring effect" upon potential suicide bombers or angry young men. But ideologically, these horror videos, such as images of Westerners having their heads sawn off only inspire revulsion and resistance in Westerners who view them.

The BBC World Service yesterday discussed how the rise of blog sites was a new addition to the news media, and helped in spreading information, and in part, forming opinion. It appears that some within GIMF have realised that appealing to the gut instincts of disaffected youth may be one thing. But the battle that the West and radical Islam is engaged in - the so-called "Clash of Civilizations" - is ultimately one of hearts and minds. If there are any serious philosophical arguments for radical Islam, then presentations of these ideas will be far more influential in changing people's minds than glorifications of savagery and brutality.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 9:11 AM | Comments (0)

August 15, 2006

UK: Terror Plot Links To Islamic Preaching Group

A report which was featured on Channel 4 News tonight, and is discussed in the Guardian, describes how the brother of one of the 24 suspects in the air terror plot to blow up several US bound planes has spoken openly of his and his brother's involvement with an Islamic preaching group.

The whole interview can be be found on the Channel 4 News website. There is a link on the page to the video report - note to Mac users - you will have to use Internet Explorer to view the video.

The interview features Amjad Sarwar, the brother of 26-year old Assad Sarwar, who was arrested last week from his home (pictured) at High Wycombe. Amjad says that he, his brother and two other friends had become involved in the group Tablighi Jamaat, whose name means "prozelytising group". This group is noted for its missionary work, attempting to redirect lapsed Muslims on the path to Allah.

Its headquarters is the Markazi mosque, which is in Savile Town, a few hundred yards from the town center of Dewsbury. This mosque is the largest purpose built mosque in Europe, and was built in 1980 with help from Saudi donations.

According to an article from the Middle East Quarterly from Winter 2005, Alex Alexiev states:

The West's misreading of Tablighi Jamaat actions and motives has serious implications for the war on terrorism. Tablighi Jamaat has always adopted an extreme interpretation of Sunni Islam, but in the past two decades, it has radicalized to the point where it is now a driving force of Islamic extremism and a major recruiting agency for terrorist causes worldwide. For a majority of young Muslim extremists, joining Tablighi Jamaat is the first step on the road to extremism. Perhaps 80 percent of the Islamist extremists in France come from Tablighi ranks, prompting French intelligence officers to call Tablighi Jamaat the "antechamber of fundamentalism.

U.S. counterterrorism officials are increasingly adopting the same attitude. "We have a significant presence of Tablighi Jamaat in the United States," the deputy chief of the FBI's international terrorism section said in 2003, "and we have found that Al-Qaeda used them for recruiting now and in the past.

We reported in November that Tablighi Jamaat was planning to build a massive mosque to house 40,000 people in the London Borough of Newham, so that it could continue its missionary work during and beyond the 2012 London Olympics.

In Pakistan, the group is approved by the "Pakistan Taliban", who ordered a ceasefire of hostilities between May 1 and May 11 to allow members of the group to travel to a grand meeting in the region of Waziristan, North-West Frontier Province.

Like the Taliban, the Tablighi Jamaat espouses a severe form of Islam known as Deoband, a Sunni ideology. Most of the Afghan Taliban's leadership were educated at Deobandi madrassas, such as Mullah Omar who studied at Haqqania madrassa in North-West Frontier Province.

Tablighi Jamaat was founded in 1927 in Mewat, India, by Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Kandhalawi (1885 - 1944).

Tablighi is also one of the main forces recruiting prisoners in French jails into Islam. It has been active in France since 1972.

This group arrived in High Wycombe, and Amjad Sawar claims that the group helped his brother to become a better Muslim. At one stage, Amjad said he was sent on a 40 day course by Tablighi Jamaat, to strengthen his understandings of Islam.

Amjat said that his brother had dropped out of university and become increasingly religious. He said: "He was at Tablighi Jamaat, which is a sect in Islam which encourages the youth to grow beards, pray five times a day; and how the prophet lived on a daily basis. He thought religion is more important than study because you can find work easily in this country."

The reporter on the Channel 4 video says that around 2001, a new group had descended upon High Wycombe, and this un-named group would start to leave literature of an extremist nature at a local mosque, according to Mohammed Khaliel, a mosque spokesperson.

The reporter stated that at the house of one of the suspects, there was found audio material of the sermons of the Saudi-educated Jamaican convert preacher, Abdullah al-Faisal, who was sentenced to seven years' jail. On 24 February 2003, al-Faisal was convicted on three counts of racial incitement and three of "soliciting murder" (under the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act) by a unanimous verdict.

AL-Faisal's sermons call for murder of Jews, Hindus and others. He was funded by Saudi Arabia to come to Britain to preach his message of hate and to incite. His sermons are popular in Beeston, where Shehzad Tanweer, the 7/7 bomber lived.

Amjad Sawar is convinced his brother Assad is innocent. He says: "He attended a mosque which had small talks on Islamic stuff and they must've got mixed up and arrested him for that reason."

The arrest was made following a long period of surveillance. This police action, performed in coordination with Pakistani and American intelligence, was codenamed Operation Overt. In future references to this plot, I will be employing this title, to make it easier for people doing a keyword search of our archives.

Channel 4 news reported that the discovery made at the area of woodland near High Wycombe contains apparently, in addition to the firearms mentioned in another report, a cache of detonators.

US authorities are convinced that the Tablighi Jamaat is linked to Al Qaeda as an agent of recruitment. The group itself denies this, but there is no doubt that it is extreme. It intends to make Muslims more devotional via a narrow and "Deobandi" form of radical Islam, rather than helping them to accept and adjust to the Western societies they live within.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 10:39 PM | Comments (0)

India: Islamist Terrorists "Were Employed" In Prime Minister's Security

After Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was shot dead by her own bodyguards on October 31, 1984, the following news is set to cause alarm. The Press Trust of India, via Hindustan Times reveals that three Islamic terrorists had been employed to guard the residence of the current Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh.

The three were said to be members of Hizbul Mujahideen, who had enrolled in the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and had been placed on duty at Singh's official residence at Race Course Road, New Delhi.

Hizbul Mujahideen is a terror group which wants the Indian state of Jammu & Kashmir to secede from India. It is led by Syed Salahuddin, who is currently residing in Pakistan. Indian diplomats and Manmohan SIngh have asked Pakistan to hand him over, following the Mumbai train blasts of June 11. Only last Monday (Aug 7), Salahuddin (the fat one pictured right) was boasting: "Nobody can hand me over to India. Pakistan should provide Kashmiris substantial support. The entire world knows what substantial support is. It does not require an explanation. It should be in addition to diplomatic, political and moral support - to make this movement meaningful."

The three terrorists from Salahuddin's group were named by a news TV channel this evening as: Gulzar Ahmad Lone, Mansur Ahmed and Mehrajuddin. They were trained in Pakistani Kashmir, and had surrendered to authorities in 1990. They have been employed by CRPF for some time.

In 2004, a carbine went missing from the prime minister's residence, and a FIR (police report) was filed by head constable Rak Kumar. The channel said that while Kumar was compulsorily retired, the three men, whose identity had become known, were allowed to continue working.

The director of CRPF, Heneral JK Sinha, dismissed the story as "totally baseless and distorted".

A spokesman for the paramilitary force, which has 165,000 personnel in 70 battalions (including two women's battalions) said that one of the men was recruited in 1998, when terrorism was not happening in Jammu & Kashmir, and the other two were recruited in 1995 and 1996.

The spokesman said that the three had been questioned in 2004 after the carbine was discovered to be missing, and all had been given a clean sheet. The spokesman said that now, the three men were fighting insurgents in Dibrugargh in Assam state, northeast India. The spokesman did say that their histories would be subjected again to review.

The insurgents they are fighting belong to ULFA, the United liberation Front of Assam.

Hizbul Mujahideen was founded in 1989, and is regarded as the militant wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami party (headed in Pakistan by Qazi Hussain Ahmad). MIPT Terrorism Knowledgebase states that it is the largest of the Kashmir liberation terror groups. Its targets are mainly Indian politicians and security forces in Jammu & Kashmir. Many of its bases in Kashmir were destroyed by the October 8 earthquake.

Perhaps because of its links with the Jamaat-e-Islami and Qazi Hussain Ahmed, who is head of the multi party opposition alliance Muttahida Majlis-e-Ama (MMA), there are political reasons for President Musharraf not to extradite Syed Salahuddin to India. Qazi Ahmad mounted violent protests in February and is always making threats of violent revolution. The MMA has control of the provincial Assembly in North-West Frontier Province.

Syed Salahuddin came originally from Ameer Kadal, a village near Srinagar, northern India, Salahuddin trained with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hizb -e-Islami training camps in Khost, Afghanistan. He left his wife and children behind in Jammu and Kashmir, India, living mainly in Pakistan for the last 18 years and has been based at Azad Kashmir.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 9:09 PM | Comments (0)

Egypt: Muslim Group Denies Al Qaeda Links

We reported on August 5 that the second in command of Al Qaeda, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, had appeared in a video, broadcast on Al Jazeera TV. In this video, made by Al Qaeda, he announced that an Egyptian Muslim group had joined forces with Al Qaeda.

This group is Jamaa Islamiya, also called Gamaa Islamiya. Al-Jama'ah Ismaliyah, al-Gama'at al-Islamiyya. It had been founded in the 1970s, and one of those who created it was former Egyptian eye surgeon, Ayman Al-Zawahri. The group had gone on to blow up Anwar Sadat, the Egyptian President, in 1981, because he had made peace with Israel. The group had links with Egyptian Islamic Jihad and Taleh al-Fatah.

The group, formed as a reponse to a decision by the Muslim Brotherhood to renounce violence, had carried out several attacks upon perceived "enemies", culminating in the massacre of 58 tourists on November 17, 1997. Mostly Swiss in origin, the tourists had been machine gunned or hacked to death in Luzor, while visiting the tomb of Queen Hatsheput. By this time, the group had killed 1,300 people.

But then there was a sea-change in the group. In 1997/8, it announced that it too would give up violence, in response to moves by the Egyptian government. Some members, such as Omar Abdul Rahman, the cleric involved in the first World Trade Center bombing in February 1993, announced from his US jail in 2000 that he would sign the peace accord, then decided to stick to the principles of supporting armed jihad.

In June the official group announced that it had set up a website, according to Saudi newspaper al-Watan.The website aimed to show to the world that Jamaa Islamiya had renounced violence for good.

Now, a report in yesterday's Asharq ALaswat reports that the core members of the group have reacted angrily to Zawahiri's interventions, and have said that Al Qaeda had been deliberately trying to taint their reputation.

Senior leaders also said that, since the UK plot to bomb airlines was revealed on August 10, it had become clear that Al Qaeda (implicated in that plot) had been trying to undermine the trust it had built up with the current government of President Mubarak.

However, despite condemning Al Qaeda, the group still supports terrorism elsewhere. On Sunday (August 13), its website announced on its website that the Iranian regime was deliberately and openly playing a role in "facilitating the entry of US forces into Iraq". One assumes that this statement means that Iran is behind the Shia elements who are active in promoting a state of virtual civil war in Iraq.

It praised the terrorist group Hezbollah, saying it had "achieved a miracle" in southern Lebanon.

One wonders how peaceful this group's core membership really is.

In April this year, 900 members of the group were released from prison, including Najeh Ibrahim, its main founder.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 8:18 PM | Comments (0)

Algeria: Islamists Of Salafist Group Increase Attacks

News from AKI states that the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) has been increasing in ferocity, in the run-up to an amnesty issued by the Algerian government. The government has offered an amnesty to members of Islamic militant groups who hand themselves in to the authorities by August 31, provided these have not been involved in violent assaults. GSPC is the best known and most organised of the Islamist groups in the country, with cells also operating in Spain, Italy, France and Mauritania. It has links with Al Qaeda.

On Saturday (August 12), there were five bombs set for a military patrol in Maazula. Earlier there had been four bombs set off at al-Qadiriya, 50 miles west of ALgiers, the capital. Troops had been gathering in both regions, preparing for an offensive against the militants who are hiding out in the mountains.

The UK-based Arabic news source Asharq Alawsat stated that there will be a massive offensive against the militants next month in the mountain areas, where about 300 militants are based. GSPC have rejected the amnesty.

In June, the interior minister, Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni, said that 200 Islamists had surrendered under an amnesty which had been approved in February. There were an estimated 800 militants which the government said could benefit from such an amnesty.

The February agreement also allowed for 2,200 Islamists to be freed, and allowed for compensation to be paid to victims of the violence, which began in 1992 when the army prevented a democratically elected Islamist regime from taking power. Since then thousands of people, mostly civilians, have died. Estimates of deaths range from 150,000 to 200,000.

On September 29 last year, a referendum was called by the government, to let the public decide whether or not to provide an amnesty. The public voted to approve the arrangement, but within hours of the official announcement of the poll results on October 1, the GSPC announced it would not abide with any agreement.

On a website, a spokesman for GSPC, Abou Mossab Abdelouadoud, whose real name is Abdelmalek Droukdel announced: "The Jihad will go on ... we have promised God to continue the Jihad and the combat."

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 7:41 PM | Comments (0)

US: CAIR, Fox News And "Islamic Fascism"

I do not have access to Fox News, and rely upon terrestrial TV, but I really wish I caught the interview between Nihad Awad, executive director of CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) and Bill O'Reilly, which was broadcast last night on "The O'Reilly Factor". O'Reilly pulls no punches and is sharp as a pin, and for all those who had the misfortune to miss the show, there is a transcript available.

O'REILLY: The question of the hour is, that your group does not want people like me and President Bush to say the term "Islamic fascists." And I submit to you, sir, that's exactly what these killers are.

AWAD: OK. And I will agree with you on one point, but also let's remember that President Bush after 9/11 used the term "crusades." Then White House officials retracted that term. And after that when we invaded Iraq, we called it Operation Infinite Justice. Then we retracted that term and we called it Enduring Freedom.

Now we could see that inflammatory rhetoric can be devastating to our image and the message we would like to send to the Muslim world. Number one, there's nothing Islamic about fascism. And there is no link between Islam as a religion and fascists.

O'REILLY: Let me stop you there. Let me stop you. OK?

AWAD: Go ahead.

O'REILLY: That's true. Is there anything - is there anything remotely connecting Italians with fascism or Germans with fascism? Because those two countries were at one time fascist states. Were they not?

AWAD: And you know what? And they are also - they're not Muslim. They were Christian. We never called them fascia Christians. And I'm saying here.

O'REILLY: No, we said Italy and Germany were fascist states. And right now, we're fighting a stateless enemy.

AWAD: Yes.

O'REILLY: ...but they are all Muslims. 100 percent of the terrorists that we're facing are Muslims.

For the full transcript, read: CAIR Outraged Over President's Use of Term 'Islamic Fascists'.

UPDATE: With thanks to "Intelligence Summit", a commenter from Terror Free Oil, you can see the video at his site HERE and also you can watch another recent Fox TV clip of Nihad Awad defending his friends in Hezbollah abd accusing Israel of "state terrorism" HERE.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 6:46 PM | Comments (1)

UK: Another Arrest In Muslim Air Terror Plot

News from Reuters in Yahoo, News.com.au, and from Associated Press via Star Tribune, CBS News, South Africa's Independent and Topix.net and also from Keyetv.com via Topix reports that another suspect has been arrested today in Britain, in connection with the recent plot to bomb several translatlantic US-bound planes using suicide bombers armed with liquid explosives.

The arrested person now makes those in custody 24. There had been 24 suspects in Britain until one had been released over the weekend without charges. The suspect was arrested in the Thames Valley Area, which includes High Wycombe, where several suspects were arrested on the night of 9/10 August.

A spokesperson for Scotland Yard said: "The person who was arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000 on suspicion of involvement in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism is in custody at a police station in the Thames Valley area."

The arrest is believed to be made following the discovery of an area of Kings Wood in High Wycombe, which has been cordoned off and subjected to intensive police searches since August 10. Today, there were BBC broadcast reports that a cache of firearms and other items had been recovered from this area of woodland.

There were also two searches of internet cafes in Slough, not far from High Wycombe, this afternoon. The One World Internet Cafe was searched and its co-owner, Nargis Janjua, said police had taken away 25 computers from the premises. She said: "They told us they were watching for days and weeks before."

Meanwhile, the baggage at Heathrow airport is starting to mount up, with airport authorities saying that they are trying to return 5,000 bags to their owners. The BBC states that as many as 10,000 bags have "gone missing" since the crisis began in the early hours of Thursday, August 10.

Restrictions upon travellers are being relaxed, but there are still plane cancellations at British airports. One in 10 flights at Heathrow, inbound and outbound, were cancelled yesterday. There have been 1,000 cancellations since last Thursday, August 10, when the crisis began.

The British Airports Authorty (BAA) admitted that it had refused to pay 35 million pounds ($66,290,430) to cover the costs of extra policing this year by the Metropolitan police. A spokesman from Ryanair said: "If the government wants to double the number of security checks, it must provide the extra staffing."

The Times and the Guardian reported that the government is discussing the possibility of screening passengers through "passenger-profiling". This would mean people who are behaving suspiciously, have strange travel plans or are from certain ethnic or religious backgrounds would be targeted for special attention.

This has brought the inevitable responses of condemnation from Muslim groups. As at least one of the 24 arrested suspects is ethnically white, a Muslim convert, and probably would not be subject to such profiling.

Ali Dizaei, a chief superintendent in the Metropolitan Police claimed that these profiling moves would create a new offense of "travelling whilst Asian."

The anti-semite Inayat Bunglawala of the Muslim Council of Britain said: "The Government needs to think very, very carefully before it considers putting this measure into practice."

In the Independent, Ali Dezai is reported to have said on BBC2's Newsnight: "We cannot lose sight of the fact that terrorists come in all shapes and sizes.. Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma bomber, would have certainly gone through the security system because he was a white male."

"Clearly it is about common sense, but it's not about saying to the victims of this problem - and remember the Muslim community is also a victim of this problem, and many of the people on July were in fact Muslim - you are the victims, you go and sort it out. It's not dissimilar to saying to women who are victims of domestic violence; 'you are a victim of domestic violence you should go and sort it out yourself'."

Moazzem Begg, a former Guantanamo detainee has told ITV News that instead of flying to Edinburgh, where he is promoting his book, Enemy Combatant, that he decided to take a train, because of the suspicions he would have faced at the hands of airport security officers.

38-year old Begg, who spent nearly three years in Guantanamo, said: "I think this is the environment that people like me - perhaps a Muslim, or Asian or someone from a non-white background - have to deal with on a daily basis."

There is a hope that Rachid Rauf, the UK national who is currently detained in Pakistan, may be extradited soon. In Pakistan, the Foreign Ministry spokesman Tasnim Aslam said: "We do not have any extradition treaty at the moment but yes, because he is a British national, the possibility of his extradition remains there."

An anonymous official from the UK Home Office said: ""These things can take time, it is likely to be days, rather than hours, before the individual is brought into Britain." There were suggestions that requests would be made to extradite other individuals from Pakistan to Britain.

Keyword: The name of the UK police operation on this plot is Operation Overt

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 6:42 PM | Comments (0)

UK: Muslim Politicians Criticize Islamic Holidays, Sharia Law Plans

We discussed earlier today the suggestions of Dr Syed Aziz Pasha, of the Union of Muslim Organisations of the UK & Ireland (UMO), who had called for Islamic bank holidays and also for sharia to be introduced into "family law" as a means of "combatting extremism". Pasha had been speaking at a meeting held between Ruth Kelly, UK Communities Minister, and "leaders" of the Muslim community.

Pasha's call for sharia law in Britain was conveniently ignored by the BBC, the Khaleej Times, and the Guardian, who did not report on any of Pasha's statements. The media outlets which did report his calls for sharia were the Independent, and also the Daily Mail.

Surprisingly, Syed Aziz Pasha (pictured below) was a recipient of an OBE (Order of the British Empire) in the 2005 New Years Honours List, for his services to race relations. He founded the UNO in 1970, when it had 38 member organisations. Now it has at least 215 member organisations and 80 donor members.

He said when he received his award: "I am glad that the UMO's contribution towards improving relations between faith and race groups has been recognised. The award is for the Muslim community as the UMO represents the whole Muslim community."

UMO is based in West London, at 109 Campden Hill Rd, Kensington W8 7TL ( Tel: +44 020 7221 6608),

Pasha is not an opponent of terrorism in a classical sense. The Muslim News reported on comments he made about Britain's anti-terrorism legislation, the Terrorism Act 2006. The legislation had recently become law.

Pasha had attended a meeting on April 18 this year, to celebrate the birthday of the "prophet" Mohammed. Fiona Mactaggart, a Home Office Minister, had told guests that anti-terror legislation was meant to "make us safer" and she said the clause outlawing the glorification of terrorism "does not prevent reasonable speeches."

Muslim News stated: "But Pasha said anti terror legislation was targeted at the Muslims and the new addition of glorification would prevent them from speaking about jihad as this would be considered as terrorism."

But Pasha's suggestion that introducing Islamic Bank Holidays and also introducing sharia as a blackmail to persuade the government to act in the false belief that such measures would have any bearing on extremism (which he obviously supports), have been met with anger and derision.

The Daily Mail reports that even the press agent of the Islamic mafia at the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) distanced himself from the statements calling for sharia law.

Inayat Bunglawala had said: "We believe one legal code should apply for all citizens of the UK. There is no place for multiple legal systems for people of different religious or ethnic backgrounds. If people object to a certain law they should campaign peacefully and democratically for a change - but only so that it applies to all people, not just Muslims.'

But some of the comments from the Mail's readers are refreshing:

"If Sharia law is so important to these people then maybe it should be suggested they reside in countries where Sharia law is practiced like Saudia Arabia. That would surely solve their problems," Tracey Koop

"When Saudia Arabia permits the celebration of Christmas and Easter, and permits Christians to consume Sacramental wine, then we in the UK will consider permitting Islamic celebrations of similar significance. Fair?" Stephen Brown

"Muslim bank holidays are the least of our worries - there were also calls at the meeting for the introduction of sharia law to settle Muslim family disputes. Any such development would be a disaster for Muslim women, who are devalued by sharia. It must not be permitted to happen. Britian should hold fast to its principle that everyone is equal under the law - and not sharia law." Terry Sanderson

But it is not only members of the public who have expressed their outrage at Pasha's suggestions. Muslim politicians too have argued against them, according to Life Style Extra.

Three Muslim members for parliament condemned the statement. Shahid Malik, Labour MP for Dewsbury in West Yorkshire, the region where Mohammed Sidique Khan, one of the 7/7 bombers came from, said: "In principle it's an idea that sounds like it could work, but in practise would be a nightmare. I think there is sufficient flexibility within labour laws to allow employees to take holidays whenever they want to celebrate the various Muslim holidays. It would prove to be counter-productive."

On Pasha's sharia calls, Malik said: "Anything which complies with British law would be fine, but where Sharia law and British law are at odds then British law should have primacy because we are in Britain. If people really want Sharia law there are places where they can get Sharia law. Family law is one area where the two could work together, but in terms of criminal law we are not in the business of chopping people's hands off or executing people in this country."

Khalid Mahmood, Labour MP for Birmingham Perry Barr and a genuine "moderate" said: "You can't have a festival just for the Muslims and forget about the Sikhs, the Hindus and the Jews. It becomes very difficult to manage that."

He continued: "I think this is people making statements which are not constructive. if they want to do something they have got to work with the grass roots of the country and forget about issues like this."

On Pasha's calls for sharia, Mahmood said: "Sharia law can't apply in the UK because we are not in an Islamic state, that's a basic fundamental."

Mohammed Sarwar, Labour MP for Glasgow Central, said: "There is no easy solution to these problems, but if we start bringing in holidays just for Muslims then the Sikhs, Hindus and all other religions will want the same. I don't know how many holidays we can afford in this country."

This afternoon, the three MPs had met the deputy prime minister, John Prescott, to discuss the present situation. The ninety minute meeting had covered, according to Khalid Mahmood "everything under the sun".

Mahmood was the only Muslim MP who refused to sign the open letter which attempted to blackmail the government to change its foreign policy to prevent further terrorism.

The BBC covered this story, in a piece entitled "Muslims 'in denial' on extremism". But though it quoted from Messrs Sawar, Malik and Mahmood, it deliberately excised any mention of Syed Aziz Pasha OBE's call for sharia laws. Perhaps the article should have been named "BBC 'in denial' on extremism".

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 5:21 PM | Comments (1)

Indonesia: Muslim Vigilantes Take Over Sharia Law Enforcement

This makes no sense: the only way to enforce Sharia Law is through moral vigilantism. The problem lies in Sharia itself, not the enforcement: Fears moral vigilantes taking over sharia law

JAKARTA: Islamic law in Aceh province of Indonesia is popular in theory but in practice it encourages moral vigilantism and disproportionately targets women and the poor, a study by the International Crisis Group says.

Politicians in Indonesia, officially a secular state, gave Aceh freedom to apply sharia law to criminal justice in 2001, partly in an effort to blunt the strength of the separatist Free Aceh Movement, then fighting for independence.

The effort to develop and enforce sharia has continued since a peace deal was reached with the movement a year ago.[...]

Posted by Ruy Diaz at 3:30 PM | Comments (0)

Australia: Persecuted Pastors Would Rather go to Jail

More importantly, what the Pastors said was the truth: in the trial, they were not allowed to back up their assertions with Muslim scripture: Facing jail for comparing Islam to Christianity

Two Australian pastors in the province of Victoria will go to jail if they don't apologize for publicly comparing Christianity with Islam according to their beliefs. They are being supported by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, the Washington-based international non-partisan public interest law firm known for protecting the free expression of all religious traditions.

In arguments presented Monday in the Appeals Court of Australia, the Becket Fund is seeking to have overturned the 2004 ruling of the Victoria Civil and Administrative Tribunal. That Tribunal found that public expression of the pastors' beliefs incited hatred against Muslims in violation of Victoria's Racial and Religious Tolerance Act because the pastors' beliefs were deemed "offensive" and "unreasonable" interpretations of Christian and Islamic teachings.[...]

Posted by Ruy Diaz at 3:02 PM | Comments (0)

UK: Passport Pic Of Five Year Old "Offensive to Muslims"

A story from today's Telegraph shows how paranoid some people are about offending Muslim "sensibilities". Dr Jane Edwards, from Sheffield, took her five-year old daughter Hannah into a photo booth to take a snap for her passport. The picture can be viewed here.

Young Hannah has her shoulders exposed in the picture, though she is wearing a dress with a halter-neck top. But when her mother took the pic to a post office with a completed passport application, the woman at the counter said it would not be accepted by the Passport Office. The woman told Dr Edwards that there had been at least two other applications rejected because shoulders had been exposed, and would have caused offense in a Muslim country.

Dr Edwards said there was nothing on the form to state that bare shoulders were forbidden. She fumed: "It is just officialdom pandering to political correctness. t is a total over-reaction. How can the shoulders of a five-year-old girl offend anyone?"

It seems that the reaction of the woman employee at the Post Office was not related to policy, either from the Post Office or Passport Office. A spokesman for the former said: "It was clearly a mistake made by the clerk at the post office. It is the first time we have heard of such a rejection and we will take it up with that particular office."

A spokeswoman for the Identity and Passport Service confirmed that it is not policy to ban images with bare shoulders, saying: "The guidance set out on the application form doesn't include it, this picture should have been absolutely fine."

There is still a large proportion of people in Britain bending over backwards to avoid offending or inflaming "Muslim sensibilities". I wonder how many Muslims are doing the same to avoid inflaming "kaffir sensibilities"?

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 12:20 PM | Comments (0)

UK: Muslim Tells Minister He Wants Sharia Law

Earlier today, the Communities minister, Ruth Kelly, held the first of a few scheduled meetings with Muslim "leaders", and according to reports in the BBC, Khaleej Times and Guardian, there were sharp words exchanged on both sides.

Kelly stated: "There is a battle of hearts and minds to be won within the Muslim community," and spoke of the need for government to work with the Muslim community (there are, actually, several communities) "to take on the terrorist and extremist elements that are sometimes found within it, not just in the Muslim community, but elsewhere as well."

"We have all got to step up to the challenge. We have got to work together. Yes, the Muslim community has got to do more, yes we as government have got more to do," she said.

Haras Rafiq, the moderate leader of the newly formed Sufi Muslim Council asked for government help to tackle extremism. His group has the support of 300 mosques in the Midlands and north of England, and he is someone who may be a far better Muslim representative than the politicised extremists at the Muslim Council for Britain. Rafiq gave an honest comment, saying: "The first thing that we need to do as a community is admit there is a problem. It is like being an alcoholic - we need to stand up and say these things and have an open and honest debate."

Another genuine moderate, Khalid Mahmood, the Muslim MP for Perry Barr in Birmingham, had refused to sign the letter which was placed in various newspapers on Saturday. He said at the meeting: "It is just an attempt to raise their own individual profiles so they can ... appease some of the more radical elements of Islam."

The anti-semitic former supporter of bin Laden, Inayat Bunglawala of the Muslim Council of Britain argued that Saturday's letter, which has been heavily criticised by non-Muslims in government and the media (apart from the BBC) said it had signatures from a "wide cross section" of the Muslim representatives, and that it was looking to make a "sensible" assessment of whether foreign policy was enhancing or damaging national security.

The criticism the letter received was over the way in which it came over as a threat of more terrorism unless the government let its policies abroad be dictated by Muslims at home.

Bunglawala claimed there was an "acceptance" that extremism existed within "a small section of the community". He said: "The question is what you do to deal with it? We think the responsibility lies on both sides - the communities and the government."

As his organisation supports extremism, and certainly supports Hamas, perhaps Bunglawala's perception of extremism are different to others.

Dr Syed Aziz Pasha, of the Union of Muslim Organisations of the UK & Ireland, said: "We are willing to cooperate but there should be a partnership. They should understand our problems then we will understand their problems."

So far, fairly mundane, and likely to achieve absolutely nothing, apart from a few halal buffets in the future at Westminster.

But what is totally bizarre is the news from the Independent, which states that Pasha had asked for a little more than co-operation.

Pasha has asked for the recognition of holidays for Muslim festivals, which is fairly normal. CAIR have been badgering school boards in the United States for such things since they were first active, even though it would be strange for a school in a non-Muslim area to be celebrating Eid or Mohammed's birthday. Muslims make up less than 3% of the population of Britain.

But Pasha has gone further, far further, asking for special Islamic laws which would apply to Muslims only. He argued that he was not seeking sharia law for criminal offences, but he was wanting to see that Islamic family law could be applied.

The seditious little toad (pictured) said: "In Scotland, they have a separate law. It doesn't mean they are not part of the UK. We are asking for Islamic law which covers marriage and family life. We are willing to co-operate but there should be a partnership. They should understand our problems then we will understand their problems."

Now the BBC quoted part of that statement, the last sentence, as did the Khaleej Times, but NEITHER mentioned his request to introduce sharia law. Too much of a hot potato perhaps? The Guardian's report ignored Pasha altogether.

What does it mean? "We are asking for Islamic law which covers marriage and family life."

In practice at its most basic level, it would mean that in issues of divorce, there would be more rights for the father than the mother over what happened to children. In September last year, there were plans to introduce sharia law into Ontario. Women's groups and others protested around the world, and eventually the plan was thrown out, vilified for its sexism and the threat it posed to existing legislation regarding issues such as child custody and divorce.

Even in a Muslim country, Malaysia, the introduction of an Islamic Family Law Bill caused consternation in December, and was temporarily put on ice in January because of the controversy it invoked.

Malaysia already has sharia courts, but the Family Law Bill would have allowed husbands to freeze the assets of wives and children in divorce cases. This bill openly discriminated against women, and made it easier for husbands to engage in polygamy, which in Islamic Family Law is legal.

It is an absolute disgrace and an affront to Britain's democratic processes, which have been reached over centuries of debate and social evolution, to suddenly expect one class of people to have special laws of their own. And people like Pasha who demand this were not even born in this country.

I believe that his comments have been ignored or downplayed because they would be taken as the last straw, the final proof, for some people in Britain, that Muslims have no place in our society, if they cannot accept our laws as they are.

In cases where a Muslim man marries a non-Muslim woman, what would be the result? Would Pasha want polygamy legal under this arrangement?

And who is Dr Syed Aziz Pasha anyway?

Pasha was given an award in May by the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) and the London Islamic Cultural Centre (ICC), for his "invaluable services to Muslims". Pasha was described by Iqbal Sacranie as a "towering figure", who had inspired him by his "dedication and commitment to the Muslim community". Apparently Pasha is said to support unity in the Muslim community. Unity under sharia, perhaps?

In May, Robert Spencer at Jihadwatch and Charles at Little Green Footballs noted that Pasha had complained about the new antiterrorism laws. He had said on 18 April about the clause in the bill which outlawed glorification of terrorism: "The Government is spending more time on anti terror legislation and is taking away Muslims' civil liberties and freedom." LGF quoted an article from the Muslim News which stated: "But Pasha said anti terror legislation was targeted at the Muslims and the new addition of glorification would prevent them from speaking about jihad as this would be considered as terrorism."

What civil liberties and rights were being taken away? The right to praise terrorism? Lord help us, if this idiot is allowed to influence government policy.

Dr Syed Aziz Pasha is a very sick bunny indeed, and I hope he appears more in public and shows how a "towering figure" really thinks when it comes to issues of terrorism.

Pasha, Bunglawala, Bari, Sacranie, and the pro-terrorists in the Muslim Association of Britain are worse than Islamofascists. They are the Islamic Mafia.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 12:18 AM | Comments (1)

August 14, 2006

Italy: Woman Dies In Muslim Honor Killing

News from AKI reports that a Pakistani man is being sought by the Carabineri after his 20-year old daughter was found buried in the garden at the family home in Sarezzo, near Brescia in the north of Italy. Hina Saleem's throat had been slit.

Her boyfriend was a 33-year old Italian carpenter called Guiseppe. He had reported Hina missing. The pair had been a couple for a year, and Hina's 56-year old father Muhammad had objected strongly. He had apparently decided that she was going to marry a cousin in Pakistan.

In the past Hina had registered charges of violent abuse against her father, but these had been withdrawn. In March, Hina moved in with Guiseppe and started work at a local pizzeria.

Hina was trapped between two cultures. She would wear western clothes, including jeans, but on visits to her relatives, she would wear the hijab out of "respect". When her body was dug up, she was wearing jeans.

It is thought that Hina's mother, Bushra, had fled to Pakistan a few weeks ago, taking her younger children with her. Bushra had protected Hina from her father's rages, neighbours claimed. Muhammad's car was found nearby on Saturday, abandoned. As well as Hina's missing father, her brother-in-law and an uncle are being sought for her murder.

Police assume that these three had decided to murder Hina when she refused a final request to marry her cousin in Pakistan.

There are 40,000 Pakistanis in Italy, and according to someone who is described as their "leader" (are they an army?), Ejaz Ahmad, honour killings have less to do with Islam than they have to do with the failures of immigrant communities to integrate.

This is bull. We have shown in May and also in our special report from July that such incidents are common in Pakistan, and also Turkey, amongst Jordanians and "Palestinians", and that honour killings derive precisely from Islam. In Pakistan, Turkey and among native Kurdish communities, there is no problem about "failed integration". We also showed that honor killings are part of a larger system of Islamic abuse against women, which often begins with forced marriage.

In a case such as this, where the girl comes from a Muslim family and is having a relationship with a non-Muslim man, it is breaking a big tabu in Islam. As we reported earlier, it is permissable for a Muslim man to marry a Christian or Jewish wife, but not for a Muslim woman to marry outside her official faith. Abdul Fattah Idris, professor of comparative religious laws at Al-Azhar University in Cairo said: "Muslim women are prohibited by the Shari'a (Muslim law) from marrying people of the book (i.e., Jews and Christians).

So there is every reason to say that this case is a classic Muslim honour killing. The girl refuses the forced marriage, and is killed, especially because she has brought "shame" upon her family by being in a relationship with a kaffir.

Ahmad, still trying to justify his false theories about alienation, said: "In Sweden alone over the last five years four women have been murdered because they were or wanted to become romantically involved with non-Pakistani men. Britain, on the other hand is full of such cases."

Well, he is right about something.

UPDATE: 15 August. The father has now been arrested, states Reuters. Mohammed Saleem's lawyer, Alberto Bordone, said: "He has decided to exercise his right to remain silent. He seemed quite calm and aware of the accusations that are being levelled at him."

Days after the centre-left government under Prodi announced a relaxation of immigration rules, this case has sparked a controversy in Italy. A member of Prodi's Union coalition said the murder showed the left's "rather idyllic idea of multi-ethnic integration" had its limits.

AKI states that Saleem was picked up with another un-named individual in Gardone, near Bresscia.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 9:43 PM | Comments (0)

Thailand: In The South, The Muslim Killings Continue

Yesterday, I wrote of the case of a motorcycle shopkeeper, Kim Sae-Kong, who was shot dead at his store in Rangae district, Narathiwat province. When security officials came to investigate, a bomb hidden inside a motorcycle blew up, and killed one person instantly. Eleven others were injured and one died after reaching hospital. Three people, thought to be soldiers from Task Force 34, were said to be in a critical condition. Today, according to the Bangkok Post, another person, a villager, has died. This brings the death toll up to four, including Mr Kim.

The news source TNA English News reports that there may be some development in the case. Local residents have been able to name the owner of the motorcycle which exploded. The man had brought the motorcycle into the shop on the pretext of having it repaired. The bomb had been triggered by remote control. Police are searching for this man.

They also have the identity of one of two men who were in a pick up truck, parked across the road from the shop. These individuals are believed to have triggered the bomb when security personnel arrived. The governor of Narathiwat, Pracha Therat, called the attackers "inhumane" and awarded compensation to those caught up in the blast. He vowed to have the killers brought to justice. Apparently eight wounded soldiers have recovered enough to be out of danfer, but three villagers, a woman and two men were still in a hospital intensive care unit.

At around the same time as the bomb went off at the motorcycle shop, another village in the district of Rangae was searched by a 90 strong security force. The security personnel weree acting on a tip-off that insurgents were being hidden in Ban Khao Noi. No suspects nor materials were found.

Yesterday, (Sunday 13 August) a 29 year old local man was gunned down in an incident which happened at a teashop in Cho Airong (Cho-I-Rong) distric in the same province. Usaman Jehtanee was drinking tea in Murueb Ork cillage, when gunmen on a motorcycle approached and fired several shots. Mr Usaman was pronounced dead at hospital. Two others were injured in the shooting - 64-year old Many Dueramae and 56- year old Manu Mana.

We wrote yesterday that the owner of an elephant troupe, 24 year old Mongkol Triyos, was shot dead by two individuals who asked to buy tickets. They shot him three times, twice in the chest and once in the face. The incident happened in Muang district, Yala province.

Today a local man, 21-year old Ibrahim Kalong from Muang, was questioned by police for shooting Mongkol. Ibrahim had been identified by three witnesses including the wife of the elephant troupe owner.

Elsewhere in Yala province, another shooting took place at a tea shop today. This time, the victim was a 56-year old headman called Nu Seeya. He was drinking tea in a tea shop in Bannang Sata district, when four insirgents, pretending to customers, shot him seven times in the head.

Also, according to TNA English News, a rubber plantation farmer was shot today in Yarang district, Pattani province. Around 11.45 am local time, 34-year old Nopadon Yamapat was riding his motorcycle to sell latex which he had collected earlier, when he was followed by two men on another motorcycle. The pillion rider pulled out a gun and shot Nopadon several times. He died by the road.

At noon in Maelan district of Pattani province today, a pork-seller was riding back from a market he had attended in neighbouring Yala province. 40-year old Sarot Tantanawat was shot by two men riding a motorcycle. He died at the scene.

The southern provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat, as well as two districts of Songhkla province, formerly comprised an independent Muslim sultanate called Pattani, before they were officially annexed by Thailand a century ago. The population in these provinces is 80% Muslim, and 20% Buddhist.

Since January 4 2004, an insurgency has been carried out by Muslim separatists, who wish to see the southern region secede from Thailand. Almost 1,400 people have died in the violence so far. Recently, the majority of victims of this violence seem to be Muslims themselves, individuals judged to be "collaborators" with the Thai authorities.

And before I forget, the Thai nation celebrated the 74th birthday of Queen Sirikit on Saturday (August 12), which is also Mothers Day in Thailand. The royals in Thailand are treated with an affection that is now almost unknown for European monarchies, close to the warm feelings that people in Britain had for Elizabeth II in the 1960s. Queen Sirikit has promised to visit the southern three provinces to meet people and to visit the projects which she has established to improve the quality of people's lives, including self-sufficient villages and experimental farms. She usually visits in September, but has decided to come earlier because she says she is concerned for the people of the south during the conflict.

Among the many gestures which endear her to the nation she is funding an 11-year old boy, who was forced into street-begging after being abandoned by his parents, to live in the governor's compound in Khon Kaen province with a 57 year old nanny. Details here. It's sentimental, has nothing to do with Islam, but is a nice story nonetheless.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 8:40 PM | Comments (0)

UK: Would Muslim Fascists Sacrifice Their Own Babies?

A lot of people in the world of Muslim representation have been concerned about the term used by President George W. Bush, when he said on Thursday 10 August that "the world is at war with Islamic fascism". The unscripted comment was from the heart, not pruned and perfumed by speechwriters. He had made a similar comment on 7 August at his ranch in Texas, where he decribed terrorists who "try to spread their jihadist message - a message I call ... Islamic radicalism, Islamic fascism." And a lot of people who could easily be classed as "Islamic fascists" were quick off the mark to condemn him.

The first of these was Parvez Ahmed from the Council of American-Islamic Relations, who wrote on Thursday: "Unfortunately, your statement this morning that America 'is at war with Islamic fascists' contributes to a rising level of hostility to Islam and the American-Muslim community. Just today, Gallup released a poll indicating that four out of ten Americans feel 'prejudice' toward Muslims."

The BBC documented some of the reactions. Ahmed Younis, national director of MPAC (Muslim Public Affairs Council) said: "It offends the vast majority of moderate Muslims. The use of the term casts a shadow upon Islam and bolsters the argument that there is a clash of civilisations between Islam and the West".

Muslims in North America from Michigan to Calgary reacted. Some non-Muslims objected. Daniel Benjamin of the Center for Strategic and International Studies said the term was not correct, if viewed "as it was developed by Mussolini". He said: "The people who are trying to kill us, Sunni jihadist terrorists, are a very, very different breed."

Benjamin did not mention the Shia Islamists in Iran and Lebanon, who seem hellbent on bringing back their missing 12th imam by driving the world into a nuclear war. And our own Ruy Diaz complained that "the term 'Islamic Fascists' makes it sound as if Islam, by its very nature, is not fascistic".

The latest complaint is now emanating from the land of institutional Wahhabi fascism, Saudi Arabia, where no Bibles or crucifixes are allowed into the country. The Jerusalem Post and AFP via Yahoo report that the Saudi Cabinet is quoted in a statement as warning "against labeling Muslims with accusations of terrorism and fascism and disregarding the history of the Muslim culture."

Like the jizyah tax paid by Jews and Christians to the Caliphates, perhaps? Or the orders in the Koran: So obey not the disbelievers, but strive against them herewith with a great endeavour (25:52), or the Hadith, where in Book 14, number 2664 of the Sunan Abu Dawud it states: "The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: Kill the old men who are polytheists, but spare their children. "?

But here at least Mohammed the "prophet" advised that the children of pagans should not be killed. Even Hitler's fascists (or "national socialists") saw children deliberately killed at Auschwitz, Birkenau, Treblinka, Belsen etc, on Himmler's orders.

One of the most appropriate responses to the name "Islamic Fascism" comes from India, in a letter by R.J. Khurana of Bhopal, writing to Central Chronicle, where he states: "US Muslims have strongly reacted to the remarks of US President, George Bush for slapping the entire Muslim Ummah as prone to terrorism as a means to sort out their grievances and describing the proclivity to do so as 'Islamic fascism'. While one can understand the pain of the peace loving segments of the Ummah over the remarks, the frequency and ferocity of terrorist attacks and plans have made the world nervous about the shape the current trend is going to take. Obviously, the influence and the clout of the peace loving elements on the rest of the Ummah is rapidly waning."

But a truly disturbing picture of how obscene some aspects of modern Islamic "fascism" can seem comes in allegations reported in News.com.au and Canada's Globe and Mail, who quote from yesterday's Sunday Mirror.

One of the terror suspects currently in custody in Britain is a woman. She is suspected of planning to be a suicide bomber, prepared to bring her baby onto a flight, and see him killed. It is bad enough to see fat Palestinian women glorifying their teenage sons who became shaheeds, or to consider that numerous babies or small children would have been murdered if the air terror plot had been successful. But one's one baby?

Police from Scotland Yard are investigating Abdula Ahmed Ali, 25, and his 23-year-old wife Cossor, who are among the 23 suspects in custody at Paddington Green high security police station. They have a small baby, six months old.

The Mirror states that police are investigating the possibility that the baby was to be used in the plan to blast up to twelve planes out of the sky, using liquid explosives hidden in bottles of drink. Police are said to think the explosives would have been hidden in the baby's milk.

We discussed the potential of liquid explosives, and suggested that a liquid could have contained either a form of nitroglycerine or TATP (Triacetone triperoxide), the explosive used by the 7/7 bombers, and also said to be the explosive contained in the footwear of Richard Reid, the shoe-bomber.

The Sunday Mirror states that near where the couple lived (in Walthamstow, east London), officers had made a break-in "sneak and peek" raid at a shed at one of the suspects' addresses. They found liquid explosives and detonators and false-bottomed bottles.

According to News,com,au, police have recovered "bottles containing peroxide, including some with false bottoms, from a recycling centre close to the homes of some of the arrested suspects." If this is true, then it would suggest that the plan would have been to use TATP, as hydrogen peroxide is one of its key ingredients. Easily available as a bleach for hair, when the 7/7 bombers were manufacturing their TATP in a bath in a specially-rented apartment in Leeds, their hair started to bleach.

Speaking of the potential plot to use a baby as a "decoy" in a suicide mission, a UK intelligence source said: "This takes things to a horrifying new level. It is truly horrific that a man may have been ready to blow up his wife and she was prepared to let her child die."

In Australia, Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty spoke on Channel 9. He said: "The phenomena of suicide bombings as a new way of taking part in terror attacks is in itself concerning, but to think or imagine that anybody would use an innocent child to join them is even more disconcerting. And I think it just goes to show you the sorts of difficulties that we're now facing in the environment that we're all in."

He discussed issues of security at airports, and concluded: "But the reality of life is that this is a new world order and nobody's got an easy fix solution to this. We're all dealing with it."

Cossor Ali's grandfather, 84-year old Nazir Ahmed, said that Abdula Ahmed Ali had travelled to Pakistan around four weeks ago. "We didn't understand what the hurry was and why he needed to go."

Cossor Ali brought her baby with her to the police station when she was arrested, but now the child is being cared for by grandparents.

The Sunday Times yesterday reported that eight suspects regularly visited the Masjid-E-Umer mosque in Queens's Road, Walthamstow, and three of these were well-known to the congregation. Waheed Zaman, the biochemistry student at London Metropolitan University, lived directly in front of the mosque.

And Cossor was not the only woman to be arrested as a suspect. The Telegraph reported that another person arrested, this time from Hackney in east London, was a pergnant woman, whose father was formerly an imam at an east London mosque. She is said to be eight month's pregnant, and married to a covert to Islam originally from Walthamstow. This man is the son of an Iranian accountant and British mother, called Oliver Savant before he changed his name to Oliver Savant.

22-year old Zaman was a head of the Islamic Society at the college, which occupied two portable buildings on the campus at Hornsey Road, north London. These were used as prayer rooms and a library. The Telegraph investigators found pamphlets and books advocating jihad and also audiocassettes from Al Muhajiroun among others.

The mosque has been attracting a lot of interest from the media, and now Fox News is being criticised, even though it only followed a normal journalistic procedure - disguising a reporter. Today's Guardian writes that the imam of the Masjid-E-Umer, Mohammed Shoyaib, is furious that he was duped into talking to the reporter.

The story is also carried by News Max and by Reuters. The investigative reporter is Father Jonathan Morris, who is a religion reporter with Fox News Channel. Fox News is gaining a reputation for being outspoken about issues of Islam and Islam (Islamic fascism).

He claimed that he was a priest based in Rome. Shoyaib said: "hen he said he was working for peace in the world, that all faiths should work together for peace, that he needs a united message of peace for the American people. Only later he said he was from 'a sister network of Sky News', but never mentioned Fox."

The imam allowed himself to be filmed for a few minutes talking, but later reacted angrily when he learned that Morris was from the "dreaded" Fox channel. In his news blog, Morris wrote: "As we move forward as a country in these troubling times, our war must be first and foremost against the ideas that shape the hearts of the Muslim masses."

When Morris returned to the scene, where he went to a barbershop for a haircut, he was harangued by worshippers from the mosque.

There will be more revelations as this issue unfolds, and more becomes known of the full extent of the plot. Muslims around the world are expressing their contempt for the way the issue is being reported. One group of young Welsh Muslims in Cardiff, states IC Wales suggested on Saturday that the Government of Britain masterminded the plot.

Members of the Cathays Dar-ul-Isra Muslim Community Centre in Cardiff said that the plot was a device to reinforce the alliance between Blair and Bush. One 26-year old, Abdul Ullah, said: "I believe this so-called plot is all a fabrication aimed at covering up the actions of George Bush and Tony Blair. Sadly, people will believe whatever they are told these days."

Another Muslim said: "It's all a lie from the government. I think they want to cover up what's going on in the Middle East and it's just another way to take attention away from what is happening there and to frighten people into silence."

When the truth hurts, then people can attack the truth. The truth that Islam is as intolerant and inflexible as any fascist regime is self-evident, even if in small details it may differ from Mussolini's fascism (which by comparison seems quite benign).

And when denying the facts does not work, then now, as in the case of those who peddle daft conspiracy theories about 9/11, the conspiratorial talk of "plots against Islam" resurface. As the Guardian/Observer reported in its editorial yesterday, entitled "These ludicrous lies about the West and Islam": "The argument that terrorism is, in fact, a response to Western actions overseas has gained currency. It was voiced most recently on Saturday in an open letter by a number of influential British Muslim leaders to Tony Blair. The Prime Minister's policy in the Middle East, they said, puts British lives at risk. The implication is that the young Britons who last week were accused of plotting to blow up passenger planes in mid-air would have been less susceptible to al-Qaeda recruitment had Britain not fought wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Policy should be changed, they said, to avoid giving ideological 'ammunition to extremists'.....

....But even within the bleakest possible analysis of Mr Blair's foreign policy, it is still simply not true that the West is waging war on Islam. Just as it is not true that the CIA was really behind the 11 September attacks or any other arrant conspiratorial nonsense that enjoys widespread credence in the Middle East and beyond."

Keyword: The name of the UK police operation on this plot is Operation Overt

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 5:39 PM | Comments (0)

Palestinian Abomination: Two Fox News Journalist Kidnapped

Islam, Religion of Journalist-kidnapping: Two journalists abducted in Gaza

Gunmen have abducted two journalists working for the US Fox News television channel in the Gaza Strip.

The two journalists are correspondent Steve Centanni and freelance cameraman Olaf Wiig, Fox News said.[...]

I predict they'll find a way to blame the Jews for this one: I mean, the BBC will find a way to blame the Jews...

The crew's Palestinian driver told security officials their car was stopped in Gaza City on Monday evening.

Meanwhile, Israeli aircraft carried out an air strike on a house said to be the headquarters of a militant group in Gaza, injuring at least eight people.[...]

So, you see, anybody whose conscience was troubled by the kidnapping of journalists can now have a safe out in blaming the Jews for the journalists' misfortune. It is pathetic really, and utterly disgusting that the British people are force to pay for this trash.

Posted by Ruy Diaz at 5:36 PM | Comments (0)

India: Protest Issued Over Bangladesh Border Clashes

The "border dispute" between Bangladesh and India, is but a manifestation of the Islamic resurgence in the former, and an unwillingness of the latter to come to terms that Islam shall always be the mortal enemy of Hinduism: BDR firing: India lodges protest

NEW DELHI: India has lodged a protest with Bangladesh for the unprovoked firing on BSF personnel by Bangladesh Rifles last week.

Mohan Kumar, joint secretary in-charge of Bangladesh, called in the Bangladesh high commissioner against the firing.

Talking to reporters, the MEA spokesperson said Bangladesh Rifles "tacitly encouraged Bangladeshi civilians to continue their illegal cultivation on Indian land".

Despite an agreement between BSF and BDR on August 9 to resolve the issue on August 13, BDR resorted to unprovoked firing on the night of August 9, the spokesperson added.[...]

Posted by Ruy Diaz at 5:15 PM | Comments (0)

Australia: Muslim Terror Suspect Fails To Suppress Gun Photos

News from News.com.au and the Melbourne Age reveals that an attempt by a Muslim terror suspect's lawyers to suppress photographs which show him posing with an AK-47 assault rifle have failed.

Aimen Joud, aged 21 from Hoppers Crossing, is one of 13 Melbourne Muslims who are currently awaiting trial. They had a committal hearing on July 24 at Victorian County Court. Joud and nine others were arrested on November 8 last year, in raids at Melbourne and Sydney. The raids followed a surveillance operation which had lasted for two years, code-named Operation Pendennis. Three more Melbourne suspects were arrested in March this year.

The suspects are associates of the Algerian born Salafist preacher 46-year old Abu Nacer Benbrika who famously declared last August: "My religion doesn't tolerate other religion....Jihad is part of my religion." They are charged with various terrorism offences.

During the committal hearing on July 24, prosecutor Mark Dean stated that Joud and another defendant, Shane Kent,had made a jihad film containing messages from Osama bin Laden and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Dean said that in September 2004, a search of Joud's home uncovered a loaded .25mm pistol and a "tactical vest".

Lawyers for the suspects had argued that two photographs (pictured) which had been taken in Lebanon four years ago, in which Joud is shown posing with an AK-47 should not be shown. They argued that following the events last week, when a terrorist plot to down nine aircraft was revealed, such images would prejudice the defendant's right to a fair trial.

Barrister Greg Barnes (defending Ezzit Raad) had said: "We have a climate and a potential jury that is much more likely to be influenced by such an image in August 2006...than they may have been in May 2006."

Barnes claimed the image would be shown all over the internet (really?) and the effect of this would tarnish the accused men. He said "This is simply spin, there is no probative value. It will be splashed all over the media because it's good copy."

Paul Marin, Joud's counsel said the photos were irrelevant to the case and were taken before the alleged events detailed in the charge-sheets had taken place. He also claimed that they were taken on a "hunting trip".

This is probably the first time that hunting trips have involved AK-47 assault rifles, unless the prey was something that ran on two legs, rather than four.

Magistrate Paul Smith said that while the defendants had a right to a fair trial, the public also had a right to be informed of what takes place in a trial. He admitted the publication of the pictures could prejudice the public's mind, but noted that the trial itself will not happen until another six months, and the pictures had already been published.

Smith allowed the photographs to be entered into evidence.

He had earlier ordered the Office of Corrections to treat the 13 men as innocent until proven guilty, and to respect their cultural and religious beliefs. The men had complained of being underfed while in detention, and also they had objected to being shackled by women prison officers.

Joud is charged with six terrorism offences, which include belonging to a terrorist organisation, providing support to Al Qaeda and providing funds for a terrorist organisation.

The men should be fed properly, but I hope that these men continue to have female prison officers. If there are female prison officers on duty, then the men should be treated just like any other Australian prisoner in an Australian jail. Their religious sexism and Koranic bigotry should not mean that they get preferential treatment to accord with their prejudices.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 11:10 AM | Comments (1)

UK: Seventy Muslim Terror Plots Right Now - Official

Last week on Wednesday 9 August, the Home Secretary John Reid attended a meeting of Demos, a London think tank. It had been widely predicted what he would say, due to "leaks" judiciously placed in the media by his allies and close associates - that Britain was facing the biggest threat since World War II. However his words, when heard issuing from his own mouth, still had the power to shock. The Guardian reported his speech later that day.

Reid said that the legal system should be responsive to change, and should adapt in a Darwinian way to survive. He said: "It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change." He made reference to the way necessary rulings were undermined by judges requiring "sufficiently cogent admissable evidence for a criminal trial", and the legal obstacles to detaining or deporting.

Though not specified, this was a direct barb aimed at judges like Mr Justice Sullivan (pictured right), who had ruled last month that the policy of "control orders" which had had been introduced by Charles Clarke, Reid's predecessor, breached detainees' human rights, as defined in Article 5 of the European Convention Of Human Rights.

We reported on May 16 that Sullivan had ruled that nine Afghans who had hijacked a plane from Kabul to Britain, carrying 173 passengers, in February 2000, were free to stay indefinitely. This decision came only 11 days after John Reid was given his job as Home Secretary on May 5. Reid vowed to appeal against Sullivan's decision, but on 4 August appeal judges ruled that he could not impose the restrictions of "temporary admission", which would have denied the hijackers the right to work and allowed the government to control their movements. Reid vowed to change the law.

When he stood on the podium at Demos' assembly on Wednesday, John Reid was in his 98th day of office. He knew a lot about the terror threat Britain was under, but appeared to be smoothing the way for greater revelations.

He told the audience: "Sometimes we may have to modify some of our own freedoms in the short term in order to prevent their misuse by those who oppose our fundamental values and would destroy all of our freedoms."

He also used a term which has since gained some currency, when he warned that European Rights had been made after the abuses brought in by state fascism, but were now threatened by "fascist individuals".

Reid warned: "We are probably in the most sustained period of severe threat since the end of World War II. Our security forces and the apparatus of the state provide a very necessary condition for defeating terrorism but can never be sufficient to do so on their own. Our common security will only be assured by a common effort from all sections of society."

He also said that mass migration in a globalized world was the "greatest challenge facing European governments" as, despite introducing great potential, it also brought insecurity into communities.

The Independent described how from 9.30 pm on Wednesday, Reid chaired the first of three meetings of Cobra, the civil contingencies committee, which gets its name from "Cabinet Office Briefing Room A". The Prime MInister, holidaying in Cliff Richard's villa in Barbados was kept informed, as the arrests began to be made from 10.30 onwards. Reid slept only for a few minutes that night.

Within a matter of 14 hours from the time the Guardian reported his Demos speech, John Reid, under pressure from the US, announced to a shocked international community that there was a plot underway to sabotage nine US_bound planes, which would be hit by suicide bombers across the Atlantic. As he made his announcement, the police were already in the process of arresting suspects.

By Friday, when Reid was in office for his 100th day, there were 24 Muslims in custody, and the details were spilling out from every opening of the media to a shocked public. Since then, two more British citizens have been arrested in Pakistan. According to Aftab Sherpao, the Pakistan Interior Minister, one of the British men in custody, Rashid Rauf, has now confessed to Pakistani authorities that the plot had been nurtured by "Al Qaeda based in Afghanistan." Rashid Rauf had been a UK born Muslim, who grew up in Ward End in Birmingham, where his father ran a cake-making business, Classic Confectionery Supplies.

Over the weekend, one of the suspects in British detention was released without charge. The rest remain at Paddington Green police station in West London, the high security building which is used for the detention and interrogation of all terror suspects. But the shock revelation by the Home Secretary concerning the massive scale of the plot was not the only horrific surprise which he had up his sleeve.

On Saturday, he told police constables that there was no place for "complacency or self-congratulation". He told them: "As I have said all along, no one should be under any illusion that the threat ended with the recent arrests. It didn't."

Yesterday, the Guardian announced that, from security service sources, there were "two dozen" terror cells operational in Britain. This was not strictly speaking new information. The Home Secretary has clearly stated previously that there several terrorist cells active in Britain. He said in May that there twenty major plots currently in motion.

But John Reid has now officially confirmed that there are "24 major conspiracies" currently underway in Britain, reported today's Telegraph. But these are the "major conspiracies" the ones which aim to cause high casualties and to fill the pages of newspapers across the globe if brought to fruition. He claimed that overall there are 70 terrorist plots currently underway in Britain.

John Reid spoke on BBC News 24 yesterday. saying; "There would be more [plots] which are not at the centre of our considerations and there may be more that we don't know about at all." He spoke of four plots which had been broken up as a result of intelligence operations.

On July 4, we wrote of there being 1,200 Islamist terror suspects who were being investigated by MI5, from a larger pool of 400,000 extremist sympathisers. Peter Clarke, Deputy Assistant Commissioner at Scotland Yard, had announced at this time that police officers are currently engaged in the investigation of 70 terror plots in Britain and abroad. He claimed that the majority of these investigations "relate to the activities of British citizens against their fellow countrymen".

Clarke said then: "That is the nature of what we face. The defence of the capital often starts many thousands of miles away. We have more active investigations than we have ever had before. Despite the increase in resources, we are running at or near capacity. There is a lot of intelligence to be investigated - some of it is very sinister. It is a very, very concerning intelligence picture."

On the day of John Reid's Demos speech, disclosures on the financial implications of tracing such a high number of potential terrorists revealed that the bulk of the budget of MI5 was being swallowed up. 87% of the budget or £174 million ($332 million) per year is being spent on tracking Islamic terrorists in Britain.

The future for Britain is one in which, no matter how much money we throw at the problem, Islamic fascism has been allowed to run rampant in Britain and will ultimately create more acts of violent terror.

For years, Britain adopted a "softly-softly" approach to extremists, allowing preachers of hate like Omar Bakri Mohammed, founder of Al Muhajiroun and first head of Britain's branch of Hizb ut-Tahrir to preach dissension, jihad and martyrdom for 20 years before he was finally barred from Britain. And Bakri Mohammed had only been prevented from being in Britain because he had already fled, fearing prosecution.

Abu Hamza had been allowed to preach similar messages at Finsbury Park mosque, and the intelligence services did nothing to stop him. Only when it was revealed that terrorists such as Mohammed Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer had been to the mosque to become inspired by Hamza's speeches, as well as Zacarias Moussaoui and the shoe-bomber Richard Reid, did the authorities move to prosecute Hamza.

Britain's intelligence services believed, wrongly, that it was better to quietly monitor the sermons inciting jihad and war on the west, rather than thumping down with an iron fist. As a result of allowing such preachers to flourish unimpeded, the virus of jihad has infected mosques, websites, publications, and most of all the brains of disaffected angry young Muslims, across the country.

And once again, we are hearing of another mosque, attended by some of those currently suspected of plotting "murder on an unimaginable scale", in Walthamstow, east London.The Sunday Times reported that eight suspects regularly visited the Masjid-E-Umer mosque, and three of these were well-known to the congregation.

The mosque may not be to blame, but in Britain, we have had such a crisis of leadership in Britain's Muslim community, who have been courted by media and government alike, that no act or plot of terrorism should really surprise anyone. With senior figures at the Muslim Council for Britain formerly praising Osama bin Laden and spouting antisemitic vitriol, yet being paid money from non-Muslim tax-payers, and being allowed to influence government policy for the past year, the time has come to stamp down hard. These "representatives", who support terrorists like Hamas, are the undoing of Britain. Their "letter", disingenuously blaming Britain's foreign policy for Muslim terrorism was received with harsh criticism even from liberals.

Part of the reason why Britain differs from America in its policies against terrorism stems directly from the need for police officers to amass considerable evidence to be able to take any case to court and hope to secure a conviction. Since the directives of European law became enshrined as a "higher authority" than the laws formulated within parliament, Britain has been further weakened in its ability to mount a credible defense against terror.

The US authorities had wanted John Reid to act sooner and disclose the nature of the threat posed to the world public by the air terror plot. But Britain's judiciary in the form of sanctimonious appeals court judges and others, such as Justice Sullivan, have made a mockery of British justice. Even though a home secretary has powers to rule extradition orders, terrorists have the power to play the appeals court system for all it is worth. Charles Clarke, the previous Home Secretary, was ultimately skewered by such measures, and rendered ineffective.

As a result of the judicial games that are played, the US is still waiting for Haroon Rashid Aswat and Babar Ahmad to arrive on their soil to face trial. It is more than a year that the Americans, Britain's allies, have had to wait. The French had to wait for TEN YEARS before Rachid Ramda, responsible for deadly subway blasts in Paris, was returned to face justice.

There is a fire in John Reid that has not been seen in a Home Secretary for more than two decades. But as he said in his speech on Wednesday, the security services "cannot guarantee 100% success."

And somewhere along the line, a Muslim fascist will get through the net of security, and give everyone an atrocity to remember.

Keyword: The name of the UK police operation on the air terror plot is Operation Overt

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 9:26 AM | Comments (1)

August 13, 2006

Bangladesh: The Islamists of Hizbut Tawhid

Hizbut Tawhid is an obscure Islamic group operating in Bangladesh. It is led by an elderly man from an aristocratic background called Baizid Khan Panni who is now aged 80. Panni is a cousin of former deputy speaker of parliament Humayun Khan Panni. He formed the group, whose name means "Party of Monotheism" in 1992, after several visits to the Middle East. His party has denounced all Islamic parties which work with the government. The group had not made much impact in the news until recently because their activities had previously tended to be low-key.

But they are extremists nonetheless, working mainly behind the scenes in an effort to turn Bangladesh into an Islamic state ruled by Sharia. They briefly made headlines in September 2003, when activists bludgeoned an opponent to death, according to Weekly Holiday, One World and the Pakistan Daily Times.

In Poradaha railway station in Kushtia, in the southwest of Bangladesh, the group was campaigning and trying to distribute their leaflets, which called for an Islamist revolution, on September 9, 2003, when members of the public started to protest. In the subsequent fighting, 35 people were injured.

Four days later on September 13, in Juglia in Kushtia, they were attacked by students from a madrassa, who rushed from their dormitories to fight them. In the ensuing violence, a wife of one of the Hizbut Tawhid leaders was killed and several males were injured. 17 activists from the group were arrested.

14 members of Hizbut Tawhid from Kushtia had earlier been arrested on July 2 2003, for distributing leaflets in Jhenidah, a district adjoining Kushtia.

On Friday, September 26, members of the group were campaigning in Narayanganj, near the capital Dhaka, armed with hammers, and distributing leaflets. They clashed with members of the Bangladesh Islamic Constitution Movement (BICM also called Islamic Shashantantra Andolan or ISA), an Islamist group with similar aims, with whom there was rivalry.The ISA had links with the government, whereas the Tawhid were outlawed. In the clashes between the two groups, one ISA activist, 25 year old Abdul Malek, was killed.

The group fled from the scene in a truck, but Baizid Khan Panni was soon arrested. He said: "My activists are severely beaten by these so-called Islamic parties (like Jamaat-e-Islami) whenever they go out on a campaign, so they have to carry hammers for defense."

The coalition government, for the first time since it came to power in 2001, made a case against a fundamentalist group, pressing charges against Panni and three of his group.

It appears that Panni was not given severe punishment, as in August last year, one of his followers claimed that the elderly leader would be writing a new book. His previous book "This Islam is not Islam" received hostile criticism. The Daily Star stated then that the group had been allowed to operate freely since their clashes of 2003.

Activists claimed that they had cells cpmprising six to eight people in almost all the 64 districts of Bangladesh. They said they were well-funded from rich donors, and had links with extremists in the US, India and Pakistan.

55-year old Altaf Hossain, operations commander for the group, said: "It is not very far when we will ask the government to run the country under Islamic law. If they can not, we will ask them to hand over power to us. If they don't, we will tell them that they will face a war, which we will wage."

"We will have our 'trained mujahids' everywhere by that time to force the government to do as we say."

Hossain had been a member of the Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami, which is now part of the coalition government, for eight years before he joined Hizbut Tawhid.

"You will get our mujahids at every district. Senior mujahids are sent to some districts to collect and train people. Six rich men from Kushtia were sent to Natore recently. They started living there; three of them pull rickshaws while the rest do work for Islam alternatively," he said.

The Hizbut Tawhid surfaced in the news again in April, when 4 activists were apprehended in a village in Jhalakathi district, in the southwest of Bangladesh. The members were captured by villagers who made citizens' arrests and handed them to police.

Now, it appears that the group is becoming active in Chittagong, in the southeast of the country. On Thursday night (August 10), five militants were arrested and the following morning, when two members of the group came to the see the activists in police custody, they too were arrested. 200 leaflets and books on Jihad were found with the suspects, which called for Islamic rule in the country, which would be achieved by armed revolution.

The seven men are now to be taken to Dhaka for interrogation, states the Daily Star. The seven were placed on a ten-day remand and will be questioned by a Joint Interrogation Cell (JIC) team, to establish more information about the group and its activities.

The cell in Chittagong appears to be well-established. Those arrested were all professionals. One was a sub-assistant engineer at Chittagong Urea Fertiliser Ltd, and three were officials at the Suncrest Cola plant and three worked in export. There are apparently 50 members in Chittagong, with women amongst their number. The males meet every Monday at the house of their leader Humayun Kabir, who is one of the Suncest staff under arrest. His wife has claimed that HIzbut Tahrir has been active in Chittagong for five years.

An editorial from the Daily Star states

"The Hizbut Tawhid is reported to have spread its network to more than 60 districts with around 30,000 activists. If that is true it is really indicative of the organisation expanding itself in a planned way without our knowing it much. We should not be caught unawares by such developments....

....One noticeable aspect of the fight against the militants is that the presence of any group is usually overlooked until it resorts to violence or extreme measures. However, a more sensible and effective course of action would be to monitor their recruitment and training procedures, sources of funds etc. and counter them forcefully.

The point of worry is that the Islamic militants seem to be regrouping in different shape or form under the banner of this or that party. We must not forget that they are trying to attain the same goal through following more or less the same path. So their plan must be thwarted well before they can cause any damage."

This would be the best way. In 2003, very few people had heard of the Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) in the nation. It was only in August 2003 that any members of JMB were arrested, when 23 suspects were apprehended from northwest Bangladesh. Despite subsequent bomb attacks, as late as January 26, 2005, the State Minister for Home Affairs, Luftozzaman Babar, was actually doubting the existence of JMB. He said: "We don't know officially about the existence of the JMB. Only some so-called newspapers are publishing reports on it. We don't have their constitution in our record."

Yet on August 17 last year, when JMB launched a campaign of more than 400 bombs in 63 of the country's 64 districts, killing two, and followed it up with bomb attacks on courthouses and high-fatality suicide bombings against members of the judiciary, the government was forced to lose its complacency. Five of the JMB's leaders were sentenced to death on May 29 this year.

Just because a major player in terrorism has been dealt a blow, now is not the time for any complacency. A group with similar ideological aims and no worries about using violence can soon become an active threat.

One of those sentenced to death in May was Bangla Bhai, who also had his own terror group, Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (Vigilant Muslims Citizens of Bangladesh) or JMJB. No-one had heard of him until he gave a press conference in April 2004 with Abdur Rahman, the head of JMB. He said in the interview that his group, which specialised in killing suspected communists, had already been operating for six years.

Extremism starts with an idea, long before it becomes a threat.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 11:54 PM | Comments (0)

Indonesia: Executions Of Christians Accused In Muslim Conflict Delayed

The present government of Indonesia, led by Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, is struggling with the rise of militant Islamism, which is threatening to destabilise the country. Though officially the nation, founded in 1950, has a constitution which allows for freedom of religion, various elements have been driving to turn the country into an Islamist state, as we reported earlier. Already Aceh province is ruled under sharia law, denying many their basic human rights, and many provinces wish to institute similar rules. Some, such as Tangerang, have already brought in bylaws which make it illegal for a woman to be seen outside on an evening, without a husband. Breaches of this law mean innocent women are charged with prostitution.

Susilo is a weak president, who tries to appease both moderates and hardliners. When Haji Mohamed Suharto, the second ruler (or dictator) of Indonesia, was in power from 1967 to 1998, Islamic militancy was kept under strict control. Less than a year after Suharto was deposed, militant Islamists began campaigns of violence and intimidation of Christians and other minorities. For a list, see here. An area which saw the worst of the conflict was Central Sulawesi, and in particular Poso.

Our readers will be familiar with our reports on the atrocities at Poso which resurfaced last year on October 29, when three Christian schoolgirls were beheaded on their way to school by Islamists. The attacks upon Christians continued until this year, with the last serious attack happening in March. The province of Central Sulawesi is comprised of an equal amount of Christians and Muslims.

Left to right - Fabianus Tibo, 60, Marinus Riwu, 48, Dominggus da Silva, 42

Central Sulawesi was involved in a virtual civil war between 2001 and 2002, in which 1,000 people were killed. This war was part of a wider war which raged in the Moluccan islands from 1999 to 2002. The instigator of this war was the Muslim militant Umar Jaffar Thalib and his army of paramilitary terrorists, the Lashkar Jihad. By the time Thalib had finished his campaigns of rampaging and massacres, 9,000 people had died. 3,900 Christians in the Moluccan islands were forcibly converted against their will, with most, male and female alike, forced to endure circumcision.

Though Lashkar Jihad was officially disbanded in 2003, reports from Poso and neighbouring locations suggest that its followers are still active, and are behind the recent campaigns of violence against Christians and Hindus.

Though Umar Jaffar Thalib ordered countless people to be brutally killed, including women and children, his trial in January 2003 for "sowing religious hatred" was a farce. He was acquitted. The Lashkar Jihad was said to have been formed with assistance of members of the government. While Thalib walks free and his "army" are also free, the situation of three Christians highlights both the despicable nature of the current president, and the disgraceful lack of justice for non-Muslims within Indonesia's legal system.

Three Catholics, Fabianus Tibo, Dominggus da Silva and Marinus Riwu were due to have been executed by firing squad at midnight last night. They were convicted of inciting religious attacks and committing premeditated murder of Muslims at Poso in May 2000. Even if they were guilty of such a crime, it is selective justice to penalise three individuals and allow Umar Jaffar Thalib to go unpunished.

Their appeals for clemency had been refused by Indonesia's spineless president late last year, and he would have allowed this to happen, to appease the hardliners within his own government, even though there is ample evidence to suggest the men are innocent. The Telegraph and the BBC yesterday stated that the three men had been given a stay of execution for six days, after European leaders and Pope Benedict XVI had appealed for leniency. They were reprieved temporarily, only an hour before the sentence was due to be carried out after midnight on Saturday morning.

According to the national head of police, General Sutanto, the delay in executions was merely a "matter of timing". The country is about to undergo its festivities to celebrate Independence day on August 17, and Sutanto said they would be shot once these had finished.

The European Union's statement claimed the killings of the three men would damage the "fragile equilibrium that exists between different ethnic and religious groups. Whatever happens, we cannot accept their executions."

There are financial reasons for the president to listen to the European leaders, as he has recently been courting trade from both Britain and Holland. He recently entertained the insane Islamist president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but that is another matter. US senators and congressmen have similarly appealed to the president to show leniency, and have been ignored. Perhaps another reason is that on Friday 11 August, one day before the executions were due to take place, massive demonstrations took place, involving thousands of Indonesian citizens, states the Jakarta Post (subscription required).

The background to the case is this. The three men are not natives of Poso. They hail from East Nusa Tenggara, a province which lies directly south of Sulawesi island. Many Christians had fled here from the violence meted out by the Islamists of Lashkar Jihad during the Moluccan War.

World Net Daily, quoting from the charity Jubilee Campaign, states that Fabianus Tibo, Dominggus da Silva and Marinus Riwu came to Poso in Sulawesi in 2000, after hearing reports of a church being burned. They entered the area where violence was raging to evacuate children from a church-led school in the village of Moengko, Poso City. A Muslim mob came to the church on May 23, 2000 and burned the church down. The children and the three men escaped before the building was razed.

Irwanto Hasan, who was a member of the Poso Police Intelligence Division, stated that days later he and the three men had been recruited into the "Red Group" a militant Christian outfit. Hasan said they had acted to dissuade the Red Group from acts of violence.

Amnesty International states that the three men were sentenced to death in April 2001, at Palu District Court. AI states that their trial did not "meet international standards of fairness. In particular, there are concerns that witness testimony provided as evidence by the defence may have been ignored by the Court when giving its verdict.
There were also reports that there were armed demonstrators outside the courthouse, demanding the conviction of the three men. Amnesty International is concerned that this intimidation may have affected the outcome of the trial."

There may still be time to campaign for leniency towards the three men. Traditionally, at Independence day, the president automatically reduces the sentences of convicts (subject to good behaviour), and maybe letters could be sent urging the president to show clemency in the spirit of Independence day. Details are found below of how to write to him.

But there are serious fears that to execute these three men will only re-ignite the tensions on Poso. We reported on May 10 that National Police chief of detectives Comr. Gen. Makbul Padmanegara admitted that he did not link three Islamists from Poso with earlier sectarian violence, not because of a lack of evidence, but because of fears that such actions "would inflame tensions".

Perhaps a retrial would be the safest thing to do, though I am sure there are Islamist elements who would not like their dirty washing to be aired again.

The conflicts on Poso began in earnest at Christmas 1998, emanating from an argument which took place outside a small mosque. As a consequence, the city was virtually destroyed by rioting (above), and churches were destroyed, such as the Oikumene Iradat Puri Church in Palu (below).

The following (with apologies for copyright) appeared in the Jakarta Post on Friday:

Rev. Irianto Kongkoli said that Fabianus Tibo's disclosure of the identities of several people believed to have masterminded the Poso violence received very little response from the authorities, and instead three innocent men were to be executed.

"I don't believe a farmer could have masterminded the conflict. They are only victims. The one who should be severely punished is Arief Patanga," Kongkoli said.

Arief Patanga was the Poso regent from 1992 to 1997. The Poso conflict began toward the end of his term. There have been allegations that in an attempt to win reelection he mobilized supporters, which eventually flared into religious violence.

The spokesman for the Central Sulawesi People's Coalition Against Violence (KoMa), Edmond Leonardo, voiced opposition to the use of capital punishment in Indonesia, including the execution of Tibo and his colleagues. He said the country had far more pressing problems to address, such as poverty and corruption.

Poso Center secretary Mahfud Masuara said President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono should form an independent fact-finding team to gather objective, honest and thorough information on the violence that occurred in Poso from 1998 to 2006.

"This team should determine the facts relating to the controversial death sentence of Tibo and his friends, and recommend a proper and just legal solution. In this regard, the government should postpone their executions," Masuara said.

Robert Tibo, Fabianus Tibo's son, said he was convinced his father was innocent. "My father is a victim of the interests of selfish people in Poso."

These are contact details for the President of Indonesia. For more info see here.

President
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono,
President RI,
Istana Merdeka,
Jakarta 10110,
INDONESIA
Fax: 00 62 21 345 2685 / 00 62 21 526 8726
Salutation: Dear President

Attorney General
Abdul Rahman Saleh,
Jaksa Agung,
Jl. Sultan Hasanuddin No. 1,
Kebayoran Baru,
Jakarta Selantan 12130,
INDONESIA
Fax: 00 62 21 725 0213
Salutation: Dear Attorney General

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 8:21 PM | Comments (0)

Thailand: Policeman Shot, Villagers Bombed In Muslim South

The latest news from Thailand's troubled south, where militant Islamists have been mounting an insurgency since January 4, 2004, is that two villagers in Narathiwat province have been killed. They were caught up in a bomb attack which was carefully and callously planned. The Nation and DNA India report that earlier today in a village in Rangae district, a man had been shot dead. A later account states that 12 security officials came to the scene to investigate, and a small crowd of villagers had been present.

As the investigators arrived, a bomb, hidden inside a motorcycle, went off and killed one of the villagers instantly. Eleven other people were injured, one so seriously that he died in hospital. The attack, according to local police, had been to deliberately lure security officials to the scene to become victims.

Apparently six of those who were injured were investigators, and five were villagers. Three of those caught up in the attack, soldiers from Task Force 34, were in a critical condition this evening.

The scene to which they had been called was a motorcycle shop, which had been owned by Kim Sae-Kong, He had been shot dead, which led the officers into the trap.

Late last night in a village in Yarang district, Pattani province, a police corporal who was on patrol was shot dead. Cpl. Uthit Sanitnok (Uthit Sanitnong) was 26 years old. TNA English News reports that 120 police officers searched the scene of his killing, and found spent shell casings from automatic weapons.

As policemen are frequently the targets of Muslim insurgents, 36 police vans have been reinforced with steel plating. Pol. Maj. Gen. Kokiart, the chief of police in Pattani, states that there are plans to put similar armour around 60 more vans.

Earlier in the day on Saturday, a police sergeant major was killed in a drive-by shooting in Rusoh district, Narathiwat province. 35 year old Thawat Buasri was leaving his home to go to work at around 6 am, when two gunmen on a motorcycle arrived, and shot him with one bullet, states the Nation. The policeman died from loss of blood.

Today, according to Bangkok Post, the owner of an elephant troupe was shot dead by insurgents in a soccer field in Muang district, Yala province. 24 year old Mongkol Triyos, who came from Chaiyaphum, was approached by two men, who claimed they wanted to but tickets for the elephant show. They shot him twice in the chest, and once in the face.

Because of the overwhelming amount of information to sift through, regarding the terror plot which was revealed in the UK on August 10, I have been late with our regular round-up of events in the Muslim south of Thailand. Our last update on the situation was on Tuesday August 8.

We wrote then that 50-year old Fauziya Uttarasin, the younger sister of Areepen Uttarasin, a former MP for the Thai Rak Thai party in Narathiwat province, had been shot that morning in Sungai Padi district. Apparently the bullet which hit her was intended for her brother. She was shot in the arm, but not seriously hurt.

On Monday evening (Aug 7), a bomb went off in Yala province around 7 pm, in Bannang Sata district, on the road leading to the Banglang dam. Burning tires had been placed in the vicinity, and shortly before a military patrol team was due to inspect this incident, the bomb went off. No-one was hurt.

On Tuesday, at around 9 am, a rubber tapper was killed in Yala province. 43 year old Sama-ae Saniming was killed in a rubber plantation in Yaha district.

On Wednesday, a medical team at Prince of Songkhla Hospital announced that an outgoing senator from Narathiwat, Fakruddin Bothor, could be paralysed. He had been shot in the neck, with the bullet leaving through his cheek, in Rangae district on Sunday (7 August), by militants on motorcycles.

Also Wednesday, police arrested another individual, Suedee Maroseh, for his alleged part in the assault upon two female Buddhist teachers in Gujingruepo village in Rangae district, Narathiwat province on May 19. One of the teachers, 26-year old Juling Pongkanmul remains in a coma since the incident. Suedee Maroseh was arrested in Rangae district.

In Krong Pinang DIstrict, Yala province, a 66 year old owner of a gasoline station was shot dead on Wednesday afternoon by drive-by assailants. on the previous evening in Muang district in Yala,two pickup trucks at a mining company car park were set ablaze.

On Thursday, the Interior Minister, Air Chief Marshal Kongsak Wanthana, told reporters that Muslim leaders have asked for the arrests of militants by the military to stop, suggesting instead that they use the cooperation of local people in such arrests. The minister said he agreed with the idea, and announced that his ministry would assign senior district officials and village heads to coordinate the cooperation plans.

A senior member of the insurgent group, the Pattani United Liberation Organisation (Pulo) warned from his base in Sweden that the violence in the south could soon spread from the southern provinces to include Phuket province and Bangkok, the capital. Kasturi Mahkuta said it was possible that "Malay liberation groups" could be thinking of extending their operations.

Kasturi said Pulo has a significant number of officials and armed troops in southern Thailand but refused to say if his group had carried out recent attacks in the south. Caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra dismissed the Pulo claims as "propaganda". The news of the Pulo announcement followed a report by the BBC quoted a Pulo official who said: "I'm very sorry for the families affected but we can't avoid these things happening. If we keep quiet, the government won't take notice of what we want."

Kate McGeown, who wrote the article, said that Pulo was very active in the 1970s and 1980s, but recently has been replaced in news reports by the groups BRN (the Barisan Revolusi Nasional), its offshoot RKK (Runda Kumpularm Kecil) and GMIP (Gerakan Mujahadeen Islam Pattani). The BRN has a youth wing called Permuda, who are thought to have been involved in the recent mass bomb and arson attacks of August 1.

On Thursday morning (Aug 10), a woman was shot and seriously injured by four insurgents who entered her home. 32-year old Rung-rudee Jaiyen, who sold chickens, was in her home with her four children in Ban Tobaka in Rangae district, Narathiwat province.

She was shot in the forehead and right leg, and was taken to hospital, where her condition was said to be critical. Her husband, Mahama Suedee, had been shot dead by insurgents only two weeks earlier.

In Muang district, Yala province on Thursday, 25-year old Muhamasabuding Buenae was shot on a road. A native of Yarang district in Pattani, police are not sure if he was attacked in an insurgent incident or as a result of a personal conflict. He was seriously injured and taken to Yala Centre Hospital.

On Thursday, a former suspected terrorist announced that he will be running in the elections on October 15, standing for the Thai Peace party, Thailand's first Muslim political party. Maisuru Haji Abdullah, who owns a private Islamic school, was acquitted last year of terrorism charges. He had been arrested in June 2003 with a Muslim doctor, Waemahadi Waedao (who won a seat in the April 19 senate election). Both had been accused of belonging to Jemaah Islamiyah the southeast Asian terrorist organisation, responsible for the Bali blasts of October 2002 (killing 202 people) and October 1 last year (killing 20). The Thai Peace party, which was formerly called the Thai Muslim party, will be putting forward five candidates for the October elections. It is headed by Sombat Thasanaprasert.

Also on Thursday, a man suspected of a failed bomb attack on June 30 was arrested at his home in Tak Bai district in Narathiwat province. 20-year old Anurak Jeteh had been identifies by witnesses as being on a motorcycle going to the location of a bomb planed in a road. The bomb had been intended for a convoy escorting teachers. The device went off seconds after the vehicle had passed, and a teacher had been injured by flying shrapnel.

On the same day, families of some of the 78 people who had died in police detention two years ago filed civil cases with the Pattani provincial court. On Oct 25, 2004, Muslim protesters were arrested by officers of Tak Bai police station. They had been protesting about the arrest of six village defence volunteers from tambon Ban Pron, who had been accused of gun theft. The protesters were later transported in military trucks from the police station in Narathiwat to Ingkhayuthaboriharn camp in Pattani province. The arrested men were tied behind their backs and kept face down. In the heat, 78 died of suffocation on the journey.

On Friday, there were two raids upon suspected militant hideouts in Narathiwat province, in which three suspected militants were arrested. A team of 90 police and military and village defense volunteers raided three villages in tambon Bor Ngor in Rangae district, following a tip-off.

They caught a man who had been wanted for the murder of Mahamud Talmee Solong, who had been killed on Tuesday, Aug 8. Two others were caught, suspected of involvement in other attacks.

The insurgency, which seeks to have Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani provinces secede from Thailand, began on Jan 4, 2004, and has now claimed more than 1,300 lives. The insurgents believe in the re-establishment of the former sultanate of Pattani, which used to be independent, and comprised the territory of the three provinces, as well as two districts of adjacent Songhkla district. Following an invasion by Thailand in 1786, the provinces were officially annexed into Thailand a century ago, in 1902.

The population in the southern provinces is 80% Muslim and these are ethnic Malays. The local Muslims speak Yawi, a dialect of Malay. The three southern provinces are the poorest in the country, with high levels of unemployment. The national average of unemployment is 14%, but in Yala it is 35%, in Narathiwat it is 28%, and in Pattani the rate is 25%.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 5:59 PM | Comments (0)

Palestinian Abomination: Muslim Sunnis See Shia Nasrallah as Hero

Next time you hear one of those well-groomed talking heads in TV explaining how Sunnis and Shias will never, never! get along, remember this; Hasan Nasrallah is a Shia cleric: Palestinians see Nasrallah as new hero

It's impossible to speak with Waleeed Ayyoub without constant interruptions. The 33-year-old artist in Ramallah is busy dealing with requests for the fastest selling portrait in the West Bank - that of Hasan Nasrallah.

"Nasrallah is a hero, I want to hang his picture in my salon," says Mohammad Taha, 27, who has come from Jerusalem to buy one of these ubiquitous posters from Ayyoub.

Portrait posters of the Hezbollah leader are hanging everywhere in Ramallah, covering the walls and shop fronts and plastered across T-shirts and demonstration banners.

Before the Israel-Lebanon war broke out, Ayyoub was selling from his stock of hero portraits, such as Che Guevara, Yasser Arafat, Fidel Castro, Egypt's late leader Abdel Gamal Nasser and Jesus.

On the day of one of many Ramallah demonstrations against the Lebanon war last week, Ayyoub says he sold around 1,000 posters of the Hezbollah leader.[...]

And yes, do notice that Che Guevara and Fidel Castro, too, are Palestinian heros. Although, of course, Islam and Communism are sooo incompatible, they will never ally with each other against the West.

Posted by Ruy Diaz at 1:26 PM | Comments (0)

UK: Muslim Air Terror Plot And Al Qaeda Links In Pakistan

In the early hours of Thursday, August 10, the UK Home Secretary John Reid announced that a major terror plot had been intercepted, which would have meant nine aircraft, traveling to the United States, were being targeted by suicide bombers. As a result, chaos at airports followed, as passengers were told they could only enter planes with hand luggage visible in a clear plastic bag. No drink, and no electronic devices, such as MP3 players or mobile phones, were to be allowed in any cabin. Mothers with baby's milk bottles were asked to taste the liquid before boarding any plane.

As well as causing chaos, which was endured stoically by most passengers, once they knew there was a terror alert, news came of arrests of people in London, High Wycombe and Birmingham. Since then, there has been an avalanche of news. 24 people are in custody in Britain, three in Pakistan with two of them British, and there are fears that more bombers are still on the loose. Britain's security alert level is still at "critical".

The fears of liquids, which affected plane passengers, related to the plot's involvement of liquid explosives, probably of a type of nitroglycerine, which would be assembled on board the targeted planes and detonated with batteries from inconspicuous electronic devices.

Attention in the media is now falling upon the Pakistan connection. We mentioned that three individuals received earthquake donations from a charity calling itself "Muslim Charity". The money had been sent in December, ostensibly to assist in the relief operations following the earthquake of October 8. According to yesterday's Telegraph, there are now seven individuals in custody in Pakistan, two of them British.

The fact that the charity money was sent to three individuals, rather than to known organisations, raised the suspicions of authorities in Britain and Pakistan. Both countries had, with US assistance, been following the progress of the plot since before July last year.

One of those who was arrested in Pakistan is 26-year old Rashid Rauf (pictured above right). He lived at an address in St Margaret's Road in Ward End, Birmingham. This address was a semi-detached house. In its back garden was an extension, which was used as an Islamic school. Rauf's younger Tayib Rauf, aged 21, has already been taken into custody in Britain and has had his assets frozen. The two brothers had shared the address.

The Telegraph states that Rashid Rauf had left Britain after he became a main suspect in a murder case. West Midlands police wan to talk to him concerning the murder of his uncle. 54-year old Mohammed Saeed was stabbed near his home in Alum Rock, Birmingham, in April 2002. As Britain and Pakistan have no extradition treaty, many Pakistani Britons flee to Pakistan following serious crimes, knowing they will not be returned to face justice.

The younger brother Tayib Rauf, states the Times, worked in the confectionery industry. The house had previously been searched after the killing of Mohammed Saeed, and again following the murder of the young black man Isaiah Young-Sam, murdered by Muslims during last year's Birmingham riots.

It was the arrest of Rashid Rauf in Baluchistan in Pakistan which led to the series of arrests in Britain. According to the Telegraph, Rauf was arrested outside an internet shop in Zhob. It was his frequent use of SMS text messages which caused him to be arrested, stated a Pakistani security official.

Rashid and Tayib both have links to the charity organisation Crescent Relief, states the Daily Mail. This organisation was set up with the assistance of their father, Abdul. There is no suggestion, the Mail says, that the charity is linked to the plot. Abdul Rauf is listed as a director of Crescent Relief, which is based in Dagenham in Essex.

Pakistani police sources are now claiming that some of the alleged plotters went to Pakistan after the earthquake to work as volunteers. And it is here that some of them received terror training at camps in the borderland between Pakistan and Afghanistan. The camps were run by Lashkar-e-Tayba, the "Army of the Pure". The founder of this terror group, Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, was placed under house arrest on August 10 by Pakistani authorities, on the same day that the terror plot was revealed.

The Times yesterday stated Saeed is to be questioned, to ascertain if he knew any of the 24 suspects. Pakistani police have been asked to find out if either of the two British suspects in their custody had attended the Markaz Taiba centre, which is run by Islamic charity Jamaat al-Dawat. This is the same "charity" Jamaat-ud-Dawah, which was founded by the Lashkar-e-Taiba leader and is based in Mudrike near Lahore. Jamaat ud-Dawah was designated as a terrorist entity by the US on April 28 this year.

Pakistan intelligence sources are suggesting that that there are links between those suspects who visited Pakistan last year and two of the 7/7 bombers, Mohammed Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer.

There are claims that two of the current suspects were also trained in the use of explosives by an Al Qaeda instructor who has connections with various terror groups in the mountainous Waziristan borderlands which link Pakistan to Afghanistan. The instructor is 29-year-old Matiur Rehman (left). There are strong indications that this man actually masterminded the current air terror plot.

Rehman has a bounty of $175,000 on his head for two attempts at assassinating President Pervez Musharraf and for plotting attacks upon American interests in Karachi.

On March 2, prior to George W Bush's visit to Pakistan, a suicide car bomber killed a US diplomat, David Foy, in Karachi. The FBI believes that this attack was planned by Matiur Rehman.

Rehman is a Turkman who has reportedly said that he trained Western recruits. He is said to be an explosives expert who goes under various aliases, and was employed at the Khalden terror training camp and the Farooq at Khost. Richard Reid, the shoe bomber, is said to have been trained by him.

Rashid Rauf is said by the Pakistani authorities to have confessed to having met Matiur Rehman.

The Telegraph states that the five Pakistani men in custody in Pakistan are said to have been "facilitators", and are believed to be linked to the terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammed, which is thought to have carried out the attack upon the Indian parliament in December 2001 and linked to the decapitation of US journalist Daniel Pearl.

The groups Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed provide safe houses, travel documents, cash, and other facilities to Al Qaeda and the Taliban, the Telegraph states, and also acts to facilitate the meetings with potential recruits.

In another article, the Telegraph describes the home life of the Rauf brothers in Birmingham, using accounts from those who knew them.

As well as Tayib and Rachid, there was at least two other brothers, who are aged 17 and 19, and a sister in the household. Tayib and Rachid Rauf attended Washwood Heath School. The family gave free Islamic classes in the school in the back garden.

A neighbour said: "They prayed five times a day and would trek over to the mosque at 5am every morning. They lived for Islam and were deeply religious, but peaceful."

Tayib left school at 16 to work in the family cake-making business, Classic Confectionery Supplies, and is said to have spent many hours in a delivery van. Other friends said he was often away from home, studying an "intense Islamic course" in Bury, Lancashire.

Birmingham city council claimed that the school at the back of the house may have to be pulled down, following complaints about it.

We mentioned earlier that many of the people arrested came from middle-class backgrounds. An article in today's Sunday Telegraph states that it seems that some of the suspects had been recruited while at universities.

Waheed Zaman, aged 22 and a biochemistry student, was head of the Islamic Society at London Metropolitan University. Material discovered at two portable buildings which were used by the Islamic Society include documents which advocate jihad and a pamphlet which describes how to deal with approaches from security services. Audi cassettes of sermons, made by Al Muhajiroun were also discovered in the buildings, which were used as a prayer room and a library.

Al Muhajiroun was founded by Omar Bakri Mohammed and gave rise to the extremist groups Al Ghurabaa and the Saved Sect, which were recently banned by the Home Secretary, John Reid. There is already a problem of extremist groups such as Hizb ut-Tahrir using univesity campuses to recruit. In November they were intimidating Muslim students at the University of Bradford for not being "pious" enough.

There is no evidence to prove Zaman had placed the extremist literature in the Islamic Society buildings at London Metropolitan University, and his family maintain his innocence.

Over the past 15 years, Islamic extremists have been operational in at least 20 universities, states Professor Anthony Glees, who is director of the centre for intelligence and security studies at Brunel University. Professor Glees criticised university managements as they "have not sought to address the problem: they have instead sought to undermine those who have raised the issue."

The Telegraph states that five of the suspects who were arrested in Britain attended jihadist training camps in Pakistan. It has already been noted that Pakistani authorities have said that some of those arrested had also recorded "martyrdom messages" which were to be used for al Qaeda propaganda.

Keyword: The name of the UK police operation on this plot is Operation Overt

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 9:44 AM | Comments (0)

Top Russian Muslim Leader Threatens State: Support My Islam or the Wahhabis Will Come

A top Muslim leader criticized President Vladimir Putin's government on Friday, calling it to financially support his Muslim groups, or face the threat of Saudi-sponsored Wahhabism.

During an August 11 meeting of the Council for Confessional Policy and Historical and Spiritual Preservation in Bashkortostan in Russia's Volga region, Talgat Tatjuddin, the Supreme Mufti of the Central Moslem Board in Russia, said that devout Muslims of the totalitarian Wahhabi sect promoted and financed by Saudi Arabia are seeking control of Russia's Muslim community.

The mufti, known for his extravagant and garish dress, also made a carefully veiled threat that the only option was for the Russian government to support those Muslim groups that he approved of. (And all this from the man who in March 2003 called for jihad against the United States.)

``Russian President Vladimir Putin has promised that the state will substantially support religious organizations facing serious problems, such as high bills for water and electricity. Many of them are struggling to survive, and good wishes are not enough --- they need financial support. Otherwise, people trained in Wahhabi centers abroad will continue actively forcing out Russian Islamic leaders. They seek religious offices in Russia, but we all know who they are and what they have been trained for,'' Tatjuddin said, reports Regnum, a Russian news agency. (NOTE: this is my own translation from the Russian, and differs slightly from the one on the news agency's web site.)

What right does Putin have offering, and the mufti requesting state support for Islam? According to the Russian constitution, there is a separation of religion and state. Obviously, mufti Tatjuddin doesn't care much for observing law. He is a Muslim, and therefore Islam is the state, and the state is Islam; or at least that is his desired goal for Russia.

Posted by at 5:49 AM | Comments (0)

August 12, 2006

UK: Another Mosque Is Set Alight

We reported yesterday of an arson attack upon the Shahjalal mosque in Blacon in Cheshire. There were suspicions that the attack may have been a revenge attack for the release of information about a massive Muslim plot to blow up nine US-bound planes.

Now there has been another arson attack against a British mosque, and the suspicion that revenge is the motive is being voiced more strongly. The mosque in question is the Al-Birr Masjid Mosque in Sarum Hill, Basingstoke, Hampshire.

The Daily Mail reports that the mosque's roof was set on fire, around 3.30 am local time this morning. It took 16 firefighters to put out the blaze.

There had been previous incident at the mosque last year, when two men were charged with racially aggravated assault and racially aggravated criminal damage to a car parked at the mosque.

The BBC and the Daily Mail quote from Steve Watts, Assistant Chief Constable of Hampshire Police, who states that police are not ruling out the possibility that the arson attack was connected to the recent security threat.

He said: "If incidents such as this happen anywhere across the two counties, I can assure the public that they will be dealt with effectively and robustly. In this current climate, we cannot rule out the possibility that this incident is related to the recent security threat. Therefore we are treating it extremely seriously and dealing with it appropriately."

During the day on Friday, the police had made sure they were visibly present near the mosque at prayer time, when people were inside the building. The attack later that night caused no injuries.

Superintendent Chris Brown of Hampshire police said: "We are fully investigating this incident and have put all appropriate resources into place. The investigation is being led by a detective superintendent and once we have identified the offender or offenders they will be brought in front of a court as swiftly as possible."

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 8:36 PM | Comments (1)

Bangladesh: Islamists Linked To Government Throw Bomb At University

The government in Bangladesh is formed from a coalition of four parties. The Bangladesh National Party (BNP) heads the coalition with its leader Khaleda Zia being Prime Minister. The Jatiya or Ershad Party is a member of the coalition as are two Islamist parties, the Islami Oikya Jote and the Jamaat-e-Islami.

The Islami Oikya Jote has been involved with mounting persecutions against the Ahmadiyya, who are regarded by some Muslims as "heretics" as they believe in a prophet who came after Mohammed. They have also been suspected of having links with the Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh, the Islamist terror group which has committed countless atrocities in the nation. On May 29 five of the seven members of its ruling council or shura of JMB, including its main leaders Abdur Rahman and Bangla Bhai (pictured above left), were sentenced to death.

The other Islamist party in the government coalition, Jamaat-e-Islami, is led by Motiur Rahman Nizami (pictured below right). And this group is intractably connected to the JMB, both directly as a party and via its student wing, the Islami Chhatra Shibir. Nizami is reputed to have killed hundreds of Hindus during the Bangladesh war for independence (established in 1971), when he had been the leader of Islami Chhatra Shibir.

We first began to describe concrete links between the Jamaat-e-Islami and the JMB on December 15 2005 and again on December 27. On Dec 14, the leader of JMB's Chittagong branch, Aman Ullah, had started to confess all, and he was brought out for a press conference by his interrogators from RAB (Rapid Action Batallion), where he was expected to make a prepared statement.

Ullah said that as well as having 200 suicide bombers ready to be "activated", JMB also had the support of thousands of former cadres of Islami Chattra Shibir or ICS. These "few thousand" Shibir individuals would assist JMB in its aims to install an Islamist Sharia-based state in Bangladesh.

This mention of Jamaat-e-Islami involvement caused panic in his RAB handlers, one of whom said: "Why don't you ask him about Indian intelligence agency RAW and his visit to India instead of asking him about Saidee?"

Saidee is Delwar Hossain Sayeedi, the Islamist lawmaker of Jamaat-e-Islami, who was recently allowed into Britain, as we reported on July 15. Sayeedi is a lawmaker for Jamaat-e-Islami, who has called Hindus excrement and also called for British and US forces in Afghanistan to be killed.

Tapes of some of Sayeedi's sermons were recovered from the home of Aman Ullah.

The second in command of the shura of JMB, Bangla Bhai, also used to be a member of the Jamaat student wing ICS. He announced in May 2004: "As a college student, I joined Islami Chhatra Shibir (an Islamist student organisation allied with Jamaat-e-Islami). When I finished my study in 1995, I quit Shibir because Jamaat accepted female leadership although it said it considered female leadership sacrilege." Bangla Bhai had joined ICS while at Azizul Haq College in Bogra.

When RAB officers had finally captured most of the JMB shura members by April of this year, an alarming fact emerged. All seven members of the terrorist organisation's ruling council had strong links to the Jamaat-e-Islami party and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir. The full details can be found in the Bangladesh Daily Star of April 28.

And though the main leaders of JMB are now in custody awaiting their executions, the Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Chatra Shibir are still actively involved in Bangaldesh's political life. And they are as intransigent as ever.

Today, AFP via Yahoo News reported that earlier today, at the Rajshahi university in the eponymous northwestern town and state, Islami Chatra Shibir student activists confronted other students. The ISC students then threw a bomb at the others, who were fine arts students.

Police constable Mamun is quoted by AFP as saying: "Jamaat-e-Islami's student party Islami Chatra Shibir was responsible for the bombing. There was a confrontation about something and in retaliation the Islami Chatra Shibir students blasted a homemade bomb injuring two fine arts students."

The two injured students were admitted to hospital but were not seriously hurt.

The "something" which Mamun refers to is actually quite a big "something", as it involves murder, politics and corruption on the part of ICS. The Daily Star reveals that a rally was being held at Rajshahi university and one of its lecturers, Mahbubul Alam Salehi, had come into the college, flanked with police protection. The rally was for Islami Chatra Shibir and Jamaat-e-Islami. Members of other student bodies had been forming their protests against the rally, and particularly against Salehi, near the University library.

Salehi is the head of the local Islami Chatra Shibir, and had inspired the rage because he has been implicated of the murder of a Professor at the Rajshahi University. Professor S. Taher Ahmed had been murdered on February 3. Three people who were arrested admitted to carrying out the murder of Taher, who was from the Geology & Mining Department.

The three said that they had been told to murder Taher, on the orders of university teachers Mia Muhammad Mohiuddin and Mahbubul Alam Salehi. Mohiuddin, when questioned, admitted his involvement in the murder of the professor, and named Salehi as his accomplice. Salehi had fled, but made a brief appearance in Rajshahi on Feb 10, surrounded by ICS cadres, and then disappeared for five months.

When he was back in custody, a judge allowed him conditional bail on Monday July 3. The very next day, Salehi had returned briefly onto the university campus to mount a show of strength for ICS. Student leaders and lecturers also received numerous death threats by phone at that time.

The death threats caused panic, not only because of the murder of Professor Taher Ahmed. As we reported earlier, another professor from the university had been murdered on December 24, 2004.

The reasons for 65-year old Professor Yunus' killing were never made plain, even though Abdur Rahman, head of JMB, confessed to ordering the killing. On February this year, the property of one of the professor's killers was confiscated. Jafar Babu was a leader of the Islamic Chatra Shibir. Another of the three who murdered the professor was Zillur Rahman, a member of Islami Chatra Shibir. The Bangladesh Independent stated:

"Dr. Mohammad Younus, President of Rajshahi unit of Bangabandhu Parishad and a Professor of the Department of Economics was killed in the early morning of December 24, 2004 by the assailants through stabbing and hammering on the back of his head at Binodepur area of the city during his morning walk.

Police arrested Shibir leader Salekin in this connection. During interrogation Salekin mentioned the name of Jafar Babu, a Shibir cadre as the prime accused in the murder of Prof. Younus. Jafar Babu remained absconding since the incident. Following Jafar Babu's failure of his surrender to the court, the court ordered the seizure of all moveable properties."

According to the South Asian:"Campus sources said the miscreants stabbed him in the chest, stomach, head and other parts of the body and also struck him with iron rods after gagging him with a towel. The miscreants left the body on the spot, about 200 yards away from his residence." The professor's only crime seems to have been his involvement with Bangabandhu Parishad, which is allied to the secular oppostion party, the Awami League.

Last month, the Bangladesh Observer that corruption in Rajshahi's local department of the Ministry of Home Affairs, cases against the killers of Yunus and Ahmed are being hampered, along with others. The fact that Islamic Shabir Chatra members can apparently murder with impunity, not even lose their jobs at a University, and can then return to parade that they are somehow above the law, is a worrying situation for many.

Professor Yunus and Professor Ahmed are not the first Professors to be murdered by members of Islami Chatri Shibir. On the morning of Friday November 16, 2003 a professor was killed by Islami Chatra Shabir members in Chittagong. Professor Muhuri, who was shot at point-blank range as he read his newspaper, was a Hindu former freedom fighter, and principal of the Nazirhat College.

60-year old Gopal Krishna Muhuri was visited by six men who burst into his home, and demanded he tell them the whereabouts of Tayebur Rahman, a local leader of the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), student wing of the main opposition Awami League.

Professor Muhuri said he did not know, and one of the masked gunmen shot him through the ear. The bullet exited through the other ear and collapsed the skull. His wife insisted the media show what had happened. We present a picture below this article, which is grisly. For more information, see here. His widow filed charges against six members of the Islami Chhatra Shibir.

Islami Chhatra Shibir had been banned by Professor Muhuri from his campus since 1975. As mentioned in a Daily Star editorial, the actual killer got away "scot-free" because of his links with the government.

Next January there will be the Bangladesh general elections, and already there is maneuvering from all parties towards this end, with strong accusations being made, and there is always the threat of student conflict. The Jamaat-e-Islami is a party which, like its counterpart in Pakistan, takes part in the democratic process, yet ultimately seeks to destroy secular democracy and replace it with sharia-based "Islamic fascism".

And its student wing, the Islami Chatra Shibir, is not only allied to the main pro-sharia terrorist group in the nation, but it has no problems in arranging for its perceived enemies to be murdered, apparently with impunity. It helps to have accomplices in the government.

WARNING: the image below is extremely graphic:

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 7:39 PM | Comments (1)

World: Sensitive Muslims Hurt by Bush's Use of "Islamic Fascists"

I, too, disagree with President Bush; using the term 'Islamic Fascists' makes it sound as if Islam, by its very nature, is not fascistic: Bush's language angers US Muslims

In the days after the horror of the 11 September attacks, President George W Bush made a point of saying Muslims per se were not America's enemy.

But in the five years since then, he has taken less care to emphasise that message, US Muslim leaders are saying.

They are upset about his use of terms like "Islamic fascists", which he used this week both for Hezbollah and the suspected bomb plotters held in the UK.

"It offends the vast majority of moderate Muslims," Ahmed Younis said.

"The use of the term casts a shadow upon Islam and bolsters the argument that there is a clash of civilisations between Islam and the West," Mr Younis, the national director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (Mpac), told the BBC.

What if, as a matter of fact there is a clash between Civilization and the barbarism of Islam, MR. Younis? What would be the use of such self-censorship then?

Truth does not need to bow before Islamic sensitivity.

Posted by Ruy Diaz at 12:51 PM | Comments (0)

Italy: Forty Muslims Arrested Following Terror Plot

News from Italian agency AGI reports that on Thurday and Friday (yesterday), 40 people were arrested, in the wake of the revelations in Britain of a plot to blow up aircraft.

Those arrested were picked up as part of a "special vigilance operation", stated the Italian Interior Ministry in a press release. The arrests resulted from actions in 14 provinces: Bari, Bologna, Cagliari, Catania, Florence, Genoa, Milan, Naples, Palermo, Reggio Calabria, Turin, Trieste, Venice and Rome. Islamic centres, including call centres, Internet Points and Money Transfer bureaux were among places visited.

In all, 1,272 locations were checked, 4,178 people identified, and 40 people were arrested. 28 of those arrested had violated immigration measures, and 12 were apprehended for crimes against property.

Additionally 114 extradition orders were filed, 111 people were reported for various crimes and 103 managers of call centres had fines imposed.

The actions were planned by three branches of police - the anti-terror unit which guided the events, in conjunction with Carabineri general command and the Financial Police.

On Friday, DIGOS (a police unit) made 15 house searches of foreigners, most of whom were Pakistani. This operation was carried out with cooperation of Belgian police, who are investigating Pakistanis who have funded Lashkar-e-Tayba (LeT) the Kashmiri separatist group which has carried out several attacks upon India, possible including the July 11 Mumbai train blasts.

During searches, documents were seized which are currently being examined by terror experts.

Three of the foreigners who were investigated on Friday have had extradition orders initiated against them, as they were illegal aliens.

Giuliano Amato, the Interior Minister, kept the Prime Minister Romano Prodi constantly updated during the operation. Amato thanked "all the forces of order involved."

On August 10, the Pakistani authorities had placed Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, founder of LeT under house arrest, without giving details. Whether there is a connection between LeT and the air terror plot is so far unknown.

Keywords: Lashkar-e-Toiba, Lashkar-e-Tayiba, Lashkar-i-Toiba, Lashkar-e-Taiba
Keyword: The name of the UK police operation on this plot is Operation Overt

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 12:15 PM | Comments (0)

UK: Muslims Blame Britain For Terrorism Plot, Not Islamic Fascism

We presented yesterday a selection of opinions from press sources, in which Muslims showed denial of their communities' responsibility for the air terror plot, which was recently unveiled. We also highlighted how many of those Muslim community representatives also support terrorism.

Now, a collection of Muslims have written to Tony Blair, the British prime minister, to voice not only denial that Muslim terrorism is caused by Islamic fascism, as George W. Bush so aptly described it, but to place the blame on Britain. In particular, these Muslim "representatives" are saying that Britain's foreign policy will cause more acts of terrorism. Britain supported the US with its moves to disband the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001, and also moved into Iraq in 2003, and essentially UK foreign policy has not changed since then.

There were the attacks on London Transport on July 7, 2005, which were organised with assistance from Al Qaeda. But If foreign policy was to blame, then surely there would have been earlier attacks. It appears there were plots, as the trial of seven people arrested in March 2004 seems to verify. But with Taliban entering Afghanistan from Pakistan's uncontrolled FATA areas, and Iraq currently mired down in sectarian violence in which Muslims kill Muslims at a current rate of 100 per day, Britain can not change its foreign policy in either Iraq or Afghanistan. To do so would open the scene for sectarian Muslim on Muslim bloodshed of genocidal proportions.

Britain has assisted America in its attempts to install credible governments in both countries, but Muslim activists, many from outside these countries, have conspired to attempt to foment civil wars.

But the letter also appears to blame UK domestic policy regarding terrorism.

The open letter, despite being "open", is not reproduced in its entirety in any online media outlet so far, even the Times in which it was published as an advertisement. Snippets are quoted by Reuters, View London, China View, the Scotsman, the BBC, politics.co.uk, Rediff, Ananova and Associated Press via Santa Barbara News Press.

The news is also carried by IRNA, the Islamic Republic News Agency. As this is an organ of Iran's criminal government, we will ignore their copyright, as is our policy with supporters of international terrorism and illegal nuclear proliferation, and reproduce the article in full:

Muslims urge Blair to change UK's foreign policies

Leading British Muslims united Saturday to urge Prime Minister Tony Blair not to ignore the effects of his foreign policies in endangering the lives of civilians in the UK and abroad.

"The debacle of Iraq and now the failure to do more to secure an immediate end to attacks on civilians in the Middle East not only increases the risk to ordinary people in that region," they said in an open letter to Blair.

"It is also ammunition to extremists who threaten us all," said the letter, signed by 38 Muslim groups and six Muslim parliamentarians.

The warning comes as Britain remained on maximum terror alert for the third successive day after police said they had disrupted an alleged plot to carry out up to 10 simultaneous mid-air explosions on flights from the UK to the US.

"As British Muslims, we urge you to do more to fight against all those who target civilians with violence, whenever and wherever that happens," said the letter, published as an advertisement in the Times newspaper Saturday.

"It is our view that current British government policy risks putting civilians at increased risk both in the UK and abroad," it warned.

The Muslim groups were lead by the mainstream umbrella the Muslim Council of Britain, the Muslim Association of Britain, the British Muslim Forum and the Muslim Solidarity Committee.

Other signatories include three of the four Muslim MPs from the ruling Labour Party -- Sadiq Khan, Shahid Malik and Mohammed Sarwar -- as well as three of the four Muslim members of the House of Lords -- Lord Patel, Lord Ahmed and Baroness Uddin.

British Muslims have repeatedly accused Blair's government of being in a state of denial by refusing to accept the contempt provoked by many of the excesses of his foreign policies, especially the Iraq war.

The letter said that "ultimately, it's the terrorist who causes terrorism and they deserve and should get all the blame for what they do."

But the reality is, the pool of people who the recruiting sergeants try and radicalize and from which they draw the conclusion that the potential terrorist is growing bigger comes from a perception on the ground about the perceived unfairness of our country's foreign policy," it added.

The Muslim leaders referred to the government focusing extensively on domestic legislation to combat terrorism.

"While some of this will have an impact, the government must not ignore the role of its foreign policy," they said.

"We ask the prime minister to redouble his efforts to tackle terror and extremism and change our foreign policy," Blair was told.

But responding to the letter, Transport Secretary Douglas Alexander told Britain's Channel 4 television that "Nothing justifies the kind of actions which terrorists perpetrate."

Note that the letter is signed by representatives of the Muslim Council for Britain and the Muslim Association of Britain, both of whom have senior members who, as we said yesterday, support and defend terrorism, but in the case of MAB's Mohammed Kassem Sawalha, actively campaigned to fund the terror organisation Hamas, responsible for hundreds of attacks against Israeli civilians.

The attitude of blaming the government for its domestic policies is hardly fair. Muslims legally have the same rights as other citizens, even though many Muslims have contempt for British society. The well-publicised anti-terror raid at Forest Gate on June 2 (where no "chemical device" was found) is frequently used by Muslims to condemn the government for "victimising" Muslims. If no raids happen anywhere, and Muslim fascists are allowed to carry out their plots of maiming and murder, then the government, and Muslim communities, will be demonised by all and sundry.

On BBC Radio 4, Lord Ahmed defended the letter and said: "But what we are asking is that the government's recent action in terms of Lebanon are seen to be double standards: that we care for some civilians in this part of the world but that we don't care for the civilians elsewhere."

One wonders what "action" the government is supposed to have taken? Sided with Hezbollah, which has targeted Israeli civilians for years, and is funded by the regime in Iran, whose mission is to "wipe Israel off the map?"

Transport Secretary Douglas Alexander responded to the letter's claims on Channel 4 television. "Nothing justifies the kind of actions which terrorists perpetrate," he said.

The attitudes of Muslims seem to be to blame others for the actions of Muslims who behave appallingly, but when other Muslims appear to be "victims" then they automatically show common cause with these other inhabitants of the Muslim "Ummah". This letter is a prime example of that.

In Burton, Staffordshire one "community leader" railed against the British and US government, and suggested that those who were recently arrested in the air terror plot were innnocent. Mohammed Jamil of the Pakistani Community Centre in Uxbridge Street said: "If the men arrested are found guilty and the police have real evidence then I have no problem. Of course anyone - be it Muslim, Jew or Christian - who plans to commit crimes of terrorism has to be arrested. However, the police and the West, in particular George Bush, seem to be targeting Muslims. There is a conspiracy against us."

"If, in a few weeks time, these people are released without charge then there will be a lot of concerned Muslims asking questions of our intelligence services. Because of what is happening in the Middle East they are trying to put fear into the minds of British people, while at the same time cementing the views of racists. It is no wonder that the Muslim community in Burton is feeling so isolated."

Burton has a six per cent Muslim population, higher than average. But while he distracts away from the real problem - Islamic fascism - Jamil seems to ignore the fact that without the cooperation of a Muslim government in Pakistan, this plot would never have been exposed, until it bore its deadly fruit with bodies dropping into the Atlantic from 50,000 feet up.

And this plot, which seems to be causing Britain's Muslim Pakistanis so much anxiety, was hatched more than a year ago, long before Hizbollah kidnapped the Israeli soldiers on 12 June and precipitated the crisis in Lebanon.

There is, as Douglas Alexander stated, no excuse for terrorism. And those who seek to justify it are themselves no better than terrorists.

This is the following entire text of the letter and list of signatories, as it appears in the print edition of today's Times newspaper, page 43:

Protect civilians wherever they are

Prime Minister,

As British Muslims we urge you to do more to fight against those who target civilans with violence, whenever and wherever that happens.

It is our view that current British government policy risks putting civilians at increased risk both in the UK and abroad.

To combat terror the government has focused extensively on domestic legislation. While some of this will have an impact, the government must not ignore the role of its foreign policy.

The debacle of Iraq and now the failure to do more to secure an immediate end to attacks on civilians in the Middle East not only increases the risk to ordinary people in that region, it is also ammunition to extremists who threaten us all.

We urge the prime minister to redouble his efforts to tackle terror and extremism and change our foreign policy.

Attacking civilians is never justified. This message is a global one. We urge the Prime Minister to redouble his efforts to tackle terror and extremism and change our foreign policy to show the world that we value the lives of civilians wherever they live and whatever their religion.

Such a move would make us all safer.

Sadiq Khan MP, Shahid Malik MP, Mohammed Sarwar MP, Lord Patel of Blackburn, Lord Ahmed of Rotheram, Baroness Uddin, Association of Muslim Schools, British Muslim Forum, Bolton Mosques Council for Community Care, Confederation of Sunni Mosques, Midlands Council for Nigerian Muslim Organisations, Council of Mosques - London & Southern Counties, Council of Mosques - Tower Hamlets, Da'awatul Islam UK & Eire, Federation of Muslim Organisations (Leicestershire), Federation of Students Islamic Societies (FOSIS), Indian Muslim Federation, Islamic Forum Europe, Islamic Society of Britain, Jama'at Ahle Sunnat UK, Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadith UK, Jamiat-e-Ulema Britain, Lancashire Council of Mosques, Muslim Association of Britain, Muslim Council of Britain, Muslim Council of Wales, Muslim Doctors and Dentists Associaion, Muslim Parliament, Muslim Solidarity Committee, Muslim Students Society UK & Eire, Muslim Welfare House (London), Muslim Women Society (MWS), Muslim Women's Association, Northern Ireland Muslim Family Association (NIMFA), Sussex Muslim Society, The Council of European Jamaats, UK Action Committee on Islamic Affars, UK Islamic Mission, UK Turkish Islamic Association, World Federation of KSIMC, World Islamic Misssion, Young Muslim Organisation UK, Young Muslim Sisters (UK), Young Muslims UK

UPDATE: According to the Observer early edition, the letter has provoked stronger reactions from the cabinet. Foreign Office Minister Kim Howells called the statement "facile" and "dangerous". Howells said: "I have no doubt that there are many issues which incite people to loathe government policies - but not to strap explosives to themselves and go out and murder innocent people."

Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett told the BBC that it would be the "gravest possible error" to link government policy to acts of terrorism. She said such perceptions were "part of a distorted view of the world, a distorted view of life. Let's put the blame where it belongs: with people who wantonly want to take innocent lives."

Despite such strong words, members of the government are nonetheless going to act in appeasement mode on Monday (14 August). John Prescott, deputy prime minister, will meet Muslim MPs, and Ruth Kelly, the Communities Secretary, will be making a statement with Muslim "leaders" (the ones who support terrorism like the MAB and the MCB perhaps?) to urge Muslim leaders to take "greater action to tackle extremism", but while sugaring the pill by asking what the government can do to support them.

UPDATE 2: The Sunday Telegraph has a very sound editorial, in which it echoes the sentiments which have been made above, that the letter from the Muslim "representatives" is reprehensible, when looked at in context. The words appear harmless but are, in essence, a blackmail. Click the link to read the whole commentary, but this is its conclusion:

There was an election in 2005 that provided the opportunity for changing foreign policy by democratic means. There will be one again by 2010. Muslims who disapprove of the Government's policy are entitled to try to persuade Tony Blair to change it.

What they are not entitled to do is blackmail the Government into changing tack by threatening that violence will result unless it does so. "Do as we say, or the extremists will plant more bombs," is not a form of argument acceptable in a democracy. Until that point is understood by all elements of the Muslim community, we cannot hope to eliminate the terrorist fringe within it.

It appears that the craven manipulation of the current crisis, in which travellers at airports across the country are suffering confusion and frustration because of the revelation of an air terror plot, has been seized upon by many people as a sign of how far from the mainstream morality most Muslim "representatives" really are.

Britain is still in "Code Critical". There are five potential terrorists, who have apparently been trained in Pakistani terror camps to manufacture explosives, still on the loose. For the Muslim "leaders" to be capitalising so soon on the national situation, pushing their own narrow agenda with this letter, is wrong at every conceivable moral level.

We here already know how little many Muslim leaders value Britain's values, customs, or even the basic concept of citizenship. Bullying and threatening may work in a jirga in Pakistan. It does not work in the West. The Muslim "leaders" have over-played their hand, and have been exposed in the process for all to see.

At last, as a direct result of this snide letter, even the Guardian/Observer appears have been galvanised into a fiery response to the attempts by British Muslim leaders to push too far at the edifice we rely upon, our democracy. In an editorial in the Observer entitled "These ludicrous lies about the West and Islam" the same reactions as described in the Telegraph can be found. The leader-writer notes that before 9/11 happened, when Western powers were preoccupied with the thawing out of the Cold War and the demise of Communism, rather than dealing with attacking the Islamic World. But it did not prevent the attack upon the World Trade Center in February 1993.

The Observer/Guardian concludes:

If young British Muslims are alienated, that is sad and their anger should be addressed. But anyone whose alienation leads them to want to kill indiscriminately has crossed a line into psychopathic criminality. Policy cannot be dictated by the need to placate such people.

British Muslim leaders are entitled, along with everybody else, to raise questions about the conduct and consequences of Mr Blair's foreign policy. But they have a more immediate responsibility to promote the truth: that Britain is not the aggressor in a war against Islam; that no such war exists; that there is no glory in murder dressed as martyrdom and that terrorism is never excused by bogus accounts of historical victimisation.

Hopefully, the scales have now fallen from the eyes of the liberal intelligentsia at the Observer/Guardian, whose white middle class readers hideously reiterated the arguments of "bogus accounts of historical victimisation" last week. Most of the respondents to a commentary by Harold Evans, which condemned the presence of Hizbollah supporters at a rally last weekend, actually defended the terrorists of Hizbollah.

Hopefully the BBC will be the next British institution to wake up and realise what devious and manipulative pro-terrorists the leaders of the Muslim Council of Britain and the Muslim Association of Britain really are, and will in future starve them of the oxygen of publicity, or furnish each interview or press release from these institutions with an additional account of their support for terrorist causes.

Keyword: The name of the UK police operation on this plot is Operation Overt

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 10:55 AM | Comments (1)

August 11, 2006

UK: Muslim Charity In Britain Helped Fund The Air Terror Plot

The Pakistan Daily Times has a disturbing news item, ignored in Britain's mainstream media, which casts further doubt about the integrity of some of the Muslim charities in Britain.

We reported that 24 suspects had been arrested in Britain in connection with the major terror plot to use suicide bombers to down aircraft travelling to the United States. The Italian news agency AKI reported that Pakistani authorities announced that two British citizens were recently arrested in Pakistan, in connection with the plot. "The two British citizens were arrested 8-10 days ago, one in Karachi and the other in Lahore," a statement claimed. The men had travelled to Pakistan from Britain, and had already made their farewell martyrdom tapes.

Now the Daily Times reveals that the two men, and also a third man of Kashmiri origin who lived in Islamabad, received large donations from a British charity. These donations were to be used for financing the plot to bring down the planes with liquid explosives.

The donations of money were sent in three transactions from the British-based charity Muslim Charity, Registered Charity No. 1078488, which is based in Retford, Nottingham. The money transactions were headed "Earthquake Relief" and ostensibly were to assist in the relief of victims of the earthquake of October 8 last year, which particularly affected Pakistani Kashmir.

The transactions were sent to the three individuals at three separate banks, the Saudi Pak Bank, Standard Chartered and Habib Bank Ltd.

Standard Chartered is a London-based international bank. The Daily Times states that this bank has a branch in Azad Kashmir because there are many Britons of Kashmiri descent. The transfers were made to the three branches via Barclays Bank. The two arrested British suspects are Kashmiri in origin.

Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had their attention drawn to these large transactions by the British National Terrorist Financial Investigation Unit. After being arrested, the three suspects gave information which revealed their involvement in the bombing plan, and gave away key points of information concerning this plot. An expert in money laundering was among those interrogating them, and further details emerged of how funds were being shifted both in Britain and Pakistan.

A senior Pakistani government official said: "Had we been even slightly complacent, the perpetrators of this plot might have been able to carry out their operations without little or no problem in the UK because of two broad reasons."

"Pakistani anti-terrorism agency counterparts abroad have been showing a lot of trust in our skills and abilities and none of our reports has so far been challenged by them."

The money which had been sent to Azad Kashmir was transferred in December at the end of last year. The official claimed: "Neither the amount nor the purpose for which money was sent caused any concern in the British investigation unit. What raised alarm among British sleuths specialising in finances was the fact that the entire money was remitted to three individuals, not to any organisation or organisations involved in the relief work."

The exact amount was not specified. A senior Pakistani banker said of the discovery of terror links with the transactions: "This was mainly due to the cooperation of the three banks through which money was transferred to these suspects,"

But there now remains a large question. Did the charity transfer funds to the three individuals in the knowledge that the money was not going to be used to assist earthquake victims? Were they duped by individuals posing as "agents"? If the charity was duped, then is it safe to donate money to a charity which does not track the ultimate benificiaries of donations?

It is a sad fact that many Muslim charities have been shown to sponsor terrorism. The charity Sanabel Relief Agency (Charity number 1083469) which also operated under the name Al-Rahama Relief Foundation Ltd, and had branches in Middlesbrough, Birmingham, Manchester and London, was designated by the United States Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control as a sponsor of terrorism in February this year. The Treasury stated that Sanabel Relief was a front for the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG)

The charity continued its work until May this year, when we reported that arrests had been made of one of its directors, 44-year old Tahir Nasuf, accused with six others of sponsoring and plotting suicide attacks in Iraq.

Even the BBC recently screened a documentary by John Ware, in which the UK charity Interpal was shown to have raised money for charities which were fronts for Hamas, and how one of its senior members, Mohammed Kassem Sawalha knowingly raised money for Hamas "charities". Sawalha is a senior figure in the Muslim Association of Britain and has links with the Muslim Brotherhood.

On August 22, 2003, Interpal was designated by the US Treasury, who said: "Interpal, headquartered in the UK, has been a principal charity utilized to hide the flow of money to HAMAS. Reporting indicates it is the conduit through which money flows to HAMAS from other charities, e.g., the Al Aqsa Foundation, and that it oversees the activities of other charities. For example, the Sanabil Association for Relief and Development represents Interpal in Lebanon. Reporting also indicates that Interpal is the fundraising coordinator of HAMAS, a coordination point for other HAMAS-affiliated charities. This role is of the type that includes supervising activities of charities, developing new charities in targeted areas, instructing how funds should be transferred from one charity to another, and even determining public relations policy."

My transcript of the BBC documentary on Interpal is nearly complete and shall be posted shortly.

Globally, there is a problem, when some Islamic charites are innocent, some are deliberately supporters of terrorism, and others are unintentiionally exploited by terrorists. Defining whether a charity is a sponsor of terror can be a matter of argument. The Holy Land Foundation supported terrorism, and helped to fund CAIR in the US, but others argue it did not intentionally sponsor terrorism. SImilar arguments have been put forward concerning Al Haramain, which was a Saudi based charity. Since March 2002, the US and Saudi Arabia jointly designated several of its branches for terrorism support and sponsorship, including Afghanistan, Albania, Bangladesh, Bosnia, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Kenya, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Somalia, and Tanzania.

Some terror charities, such as the Revival of Islamic Heritage Society (RIHS or Jamiat Ihia Al- Turath Al-Islamiya) are able to operate legally. It operates from its base in Kuwait, while being designated by the US State Department since Jan 9, 2002. In Bangladesh, this group, which aims to destabilise countries that can be pushed towards becoming "Islamist" received donations from the government on November 29 last year, to build mosques and madrassas. This group helped sponsor the attacks upon Bangladesh on August 17 last year, when bombs went off in 63 of the country's 64 districts.

On August 3 last week, the US designated the Philippine and Indonesian branch offices of the International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO) , for fundraising for AL Qaeda. The Saudi-based organisation, founded in 1978, has branch offices in 20 other nations.

Other charities in Britain with questionable records include the Islamic Relief Agency (IRA) or Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW), based in Birmingham, which has been given money by Yusuf Islam/Cat Stevens, which led to the singer being barred entry into the US. Arutz Sheva reported that Israeli authorities detained a UK citizen in May this year. Iyaz Ali admitted transferring funds and assisting Hamas institutions and groups, including Al Wafa and Al Tzalah, both of which are officially illegal in Israel.

Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated: "Incriminating files were found on Ali's computer, including documents that attested to the organization's ties with illegal Hamas funds abroad (in the UK and in Saudi Arabia) and in Nablus. Also found were photographs of swastikas superimposed on IDF symbols, of senior Nazi German officials, of Osama Bin Laden and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, as well as many photographs of Hamas military activities."

Yet Ali and his charity, which was founded in 1984 by Dr Hany El Banna, maintains its innocence. For more details see here.

Keyword: The name of the UK police operation on this plot is Operation Overt

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 11:12 PM | Comments (1)

UK: Cheshire Mosque Is Attacked Again

News from ITV and ic coventry states that an arson attack happened at a mosque in Blacon, near Chester in Cheshire, last night, shortly before midnight.

An accelerant was poured through the door at the mosque, while worshippers were inside. The people inside the building managed to extinguish the fire and no-one was hurt. Only minor damage was caused to the building.

Police said the incident was a "faith hate" crime, but it was too early to say if it was linked to the discovery of the Muslim terror plot to bomb nine planes,. This had been reported upon earlier in the day. The media had been awash with tales of the plot and its effects upon air travellers stuck in airports, as well as details of arrests of suspects, throughout the day.

As we reported last year, the Shahjalal mosque in Clifton Drive, the only mosque in the town, was attacked in a similar fashion.

That event had coincided with a religious festival called Lailat-ul Bura'at, the Night of the Records. The service was taking place at around 1.15 am on Monday, 19 September, when a fire was started outside a side-door of the building. The 20 people inside smelled the smoke coming through the door, and were able to put it our.

We stated: Asian representatives say it was certainly racially motivated. Earlier in the year, windows in the mosque were smashed, followed by months of calm, until this arson incident. Mosque leaders have met with police to "boost relations" and discuss the problems.

A search though archives has led me to another account from last year, from the Chester Chronicle. At that time, mosque leaders were concerned that the incidents had been connected with the bombings in London two months earlier on 7/7.

However, the previous incidents of violence point to poor inter-faith tolerance in the area from some elements of the community. A fire had been started at the same doorway before 7/7, and also car windows had been smashed outside the mosque, and the mosque's windows had been smashed.

In one incident which happened before 7/7, the mosque worshippers had taken off their shoes, which is customary, to enter the building. When they came outside, the footwear had been stolen.

However, in the immediate aftermath of 7/7, the mosque leader had been threatened.

Sergeant Dave Barter, of the Community Action Team, said then: "It has to be recognised that Chester and Blacon is very well integrated by and large. This is the work of a small minority of mindless idiots."

It would not be surprising if the attack upon the mosque last night may have been done by people angered by the news of a further Muslim terror plot. But it would also not be surprising if the action was made by young hooligans, rather than from any organised body.

What is worrying is the way in which last September's arson attack, and the one from last night, had happened while people were inside the building. Terrorists obviously do not care about others' lives, but to act in a way to endanger life is more than irresponsible, and should be stopped before people get seriously hurt, or worse.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 3:53 PM | Comments (0)

Egypt: Coup by Muslim Brotherhood Thwarted--Report

Take this with a grain of salt--for now: Plot to overthrow Egyptian president foiled

JERUSALEM – Egypt has arrested a leader of a major domestic opposition group who allegedly confessed to plotting the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak, an Egyptian official told the Galil Report.

The suspect, identified as Abed al-Munemhem Abu al-Futuh of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, allegedly admitted during interrogation to planning the coup. Cairo is withholding details.

Egyptian officials told the Galil Report investigators are focusing on a series of conversations al-Futuh had with Muslim Brotherhood leaders in Syria.

The plot was halted just days after Mahdi Akif, leader of the Brotherhood in Egypt, announced his group would train members in military tactics to fight alongside Hezbollah in Lebanon and to join Palestinian terror groups in the Gaza Strip, which borders the Egyptian Sinai desert.[...]

Posted by Ruy Diaz at 1:47 PM | Comments (0)

US: Muslim Pakistani Men on Mysterious Shopping Spree

Nothing to see here, move along, this is in no way related to terrorism...: Three Middle Eastern Men Found With 1000 Cell Phones

TV5) -- Around 1:00am August 11th three men purchased cell phones from the Wal-Mart store on M-81 near the corner of M-24 in Caro. Wal-Mart places a limit on the number of cell phones that can be purchased at once, that number is three. The three men allegedly bought 80 by purchasing them three at time so that an alert wouldn't be triggered by the cash register. They also paid cash.

An alert clerk grew suspicious and called Tuscola County central dispatch. The Caro Police Department sent a unit and stopped the rented van on M-81 just east of Caro. The suspects were headed towards Bad Axe on M-81 where there is another Super Wal-Mart.

The three men were described as being of Pakistani descent but live in Texas. Police say the three, ages 19, 22, and 23 appear to be naturalized citizens. One man was driving while the other two were in the back opening the phone packages with box cutters throwing the phones in one box, batteries in another and the packaging and phone charger in another container. The suspects had 1000 other cell phones in the van. There was also a bag of receipts showing that someone was in Wisconsin the day before.[...]

Some people will blame the 'racist Wal-Mart employee', mark my words.

Hat tip: Michelle Malkin

Posted by Ruy Diaz at 1:31 PM | Comments (0)

India: US Warns of al-Qaeda Attacks

"Idolater"-killing planned, because, you know, Islam is a Religion of Peace: U.S. Embassy in New Delhi Warns of Possible Al Qaeda Terror Attacks in India

NEW DELHI - The U.S. Embassy in India's capital warned Friday that foreign militants, possibly Al Qaeda members, may be planning to carry out bombings in two major